Man 'dressed like mannequin' spied on ladies in toilet

A bearded pervert donned a mask and wig to spy on women using the ladies toilets at Birmingham’s showpiece Bullring mall. Student Joel Hardman was rumbled after a shopper reported seeing someone “dressed like a mannequin” walk into the lavatories. He later emerged from a locked cubicle and admitted performing a sex act. And Birmingham Magistrates’ Court heard Hardman’s phone contained three images of women’s feet taken beneath cubicle doors and an audio recording of a flushing toilet.

Hardman, 22, of Norfolk Road, Edgbaston, pleaded guilty to observing another person doing a private act for his own sexual gratification. Hardman, 22, of Norfolk Road, Edgbaston, pleaded guilty to observing another person doing a private act for his own sexual gratification. Jonathan Purser, prosecuting, said Hardman, believed to be an MSc student at the University of Birmingham, told a Bullring security guard: “Yes, I’ve been a bit weird.”



He told police he found the sound of women on the toilet sexually exciting and said to officers: “It’s good you’ve caught me – maybe now I’ll stop.” Mr Purser said Hardman was caught out after the shopper saw him enter the Bullring’s female toilets at 3pm on April 3 “dressed like a mannequin with a mask and a wig”. The court heard Hardman confessed he had done it once before, in the women’s toilets at a university campus, but moved to the Bullring “because it was busier”.

Asked why he had done it, he replied: “I get sexual gratification out of everything that goes on in women’s toilets.” He did not offer an explanation as to why he was dressed like a shop mannequin, only saying he had recently worn the mask and wig to a fancy dress party. District Judge Lesley Mottram adjourned the case until May 10 to allow a pre-sentence report to be prepared. Hardman was released on bail on condition he stayed away from public lavatories and did not enter any female toilets.