The father-of-two said he reported the problem to police but was ignored so decided to take action because the area was visited by families and children. Images shown to the court depicted the self-employed mechanic and his accomplices dressed in balaclavas, combat kit and brandishing a video camera and walkie-talkies.
On occasions they would pretend to be looking for sex in order to lure gay men into the area before confronting them and demanding to know what they were doing. He then posted the footage on the website Bostontown.net, which between January 2008 and last April recorded 9.2million page hits.
Photo from here.
Often the images were dubbed with music such as YMCA by the Village People and the nursery rhyme Teddy Bear's picnic. Liz Harte, defending, described Haw's actions as a "misguided enterprise".
Pat Walsh, chairman of the bench, sentenced Haw to four months in prison, suspended for a year and a half. He also ordered him to do 200 hours community service work but rejected an application by Lincolnshire Police for an anti-social behaviour order to be made against the amateur film maker.
Outside court, Haw said: "We didn't go in there to cause people harm. We reported it on several occasions to the police. We tried to name and shame them but we didn't have any intention of causing them distress. We didn't put up any pornographic material. I've got nothing against homosexual people but what gives them the authority to do it in public?"
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