Martin Roberts (Image: South Wales Police)
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A 36-year-old who trailed two women through Swansea city centre – crouching to the floor of a supermarket aisle to look up one of their skirts – has been sent to prison for three years.
Martin Roberts had been out of prison on licence for barely 24 hours when the offending began, Swansea Crown Court heard. He admitted outraging public decency, exposure and breaching a sexual harm prevention order.
Followed around Primark
The first woman was browsing in Primark on Thursday, July 2 when she realised she was being watched. Roberts was “constantly staring at her”, and the attention left her uneasy.
She tried switching between departments to lose him. It did not work. Eventually she took the escalator to the first floor, and from up there she could see him below, “intently looking around for someone”.
Rather than risk leaving, she waited. Half an hour passed before she was satisfied he had gone, and only then did she head out – walking to Tesco.
A second woman targeted
What she did not know was that Roberts had already left Primark and gone to the same shop. By the time she arrived, his attention had moved to someone else.
CCTV showed him “following the woman intently” around the store. In one aisle, with nobody else present, he moved in close, dropped to the floor and looked up her skirt. He was then seen rubbing himself through his clothing.
It was at that moment the woman from Primark walked in and recognised him. She saw him staring at the second shopper with his hand down his shorts and went straight to a Tesco security guard.
The guard then witnessed it himself – Roberts watching the woman as she queued at the checkout, one hand inside his shorts. Approached by the guard, he sprinted out of the shop.
Arrest and behaviour in custody
The incident was reported to police, who traced Roberts to Quay House Hostel on The Strand in Swansea and arrested him. He was taken to Swansea Central Police Station.
In a cell there, he “stripped out of his clothes” and repeatedly performed a sex act on himself in full view of the cameras, gesticulating towards them as he did so, knowing he was being watched. Asked to stop, he replied: “F*** off, I will do what I want.”
Mitigation
Roberts, of Quay House Hostel, The Strand, Swansea, appeared for sentencing over a prison video link.
Clare Wilks, representing Roberts, said: “He is currently at HMP Oakwood, where he has been for three weeks and has settled in very well.
“He is looking to engage in a better choices programme and psychiatric programme, and in my submission, it is a positive that he is recognising his offending.
“There is very little positive mitigation which can be placed for Mr Roberts, but the best mitigation is his guilty pleas. Both victims are distressed by what happened, and giving evidence would have caused them more distress.”
Sentencing
Judge Paul Thomas told him: “Your record for offences of a sexual nature is a very disturbing one indeed.
“There is a persistent failure to comply with notification requirements and orders made against you. In March last year, you were sent to prison for failing to comply with notification requirements and exposure. You were released earlier this month and within a day of being released on licence, you re-offended in a persistent way.
“On that day, you followed a woman in a store making her feel uncomfortable and concerned. She stayed in Primark for half an hour waiting for you to leave, but you still followed her.
“You committed these offences in public places, but frankly, that makes it all the more brazen.
“In custody, you were abusive towards staff and masturbated in full view of cameras. When asked to stop, you told them to f*** off and continued.
“It seems to me that you are wholly determined to reoffend whatever the courts do to you, and that you are undeterrable.”
Roberts was jailed for three years.
