Tim Keeble slammed by magistrate after supermarket ‘upskirting’
A former journalist has narrowly escaped jail, after he filmed up a woman’s dress at a suburban supermarket “for his own perverted thoughts”.
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A former sports journalist has narrowly avoided jail after he was caught ‘upskirting’ a woman in a grocery store, with a magistrate slamming his behaviour as “perverted”.
Tim Keeble, a former sports journalist at the Illawarra Mercury was sentenced to 13-months jail by Magistrate Roger Prowse, to be served in the community by way of intensive corrections order on Tuesday, after pleading guilty to a charge of film person’s private parts without consent.
“It’s about time women were not treated as prey, because that’s exactly what you did,” Magistrate Prowse said. “You preyed on a woman to satisfy your own perverted thoughts.”
Keeble, who was visibly distressed during his appearance at court, was charged on September 7, after a woman caught him sticking an iPhone between her legs and filming up her dress at Woolworths in Figtree Grove on September 1.
The court heard the 51-year-old admitted to the act as soon as he was arrested, telling police he “was remorseful of his actions which he described as a personal fetish”.
According to the documents, the entire incident was captured on Woolworths CCTV cameras.
Keeble is seen entering aisle nine of the supermarket at 7.59pm, carrying a shopping basket while fiddling with something within the basket, which police said was “a recording device”.
Keeble approached the victim several times, strategically holding the device between her legs, before accidentally grazing the inside of her thigh.
The victim turned around, while Keeble stuffed the phone into his pocket, telling the woman he was “trying to look for an item at the bottom shelf”.
He then fled the supermarket, with the woman telling staff who reviewed the CCTV footage.
Police were contacted and Keeble was arrested some days later and taken to Wollongong Police Station where he admitted to the offence.
On Tuesday, Keeble’s defence lawyer Sian Aldis told the court her client had deep remorse, and that he was “clearly someone who had never behaved in this way before”.
However, Magistrate Prowse described the incident as “planned and persistent” and that Keeble’s victim would always be “looking over her shoulder” following the upskirting.
“What motivated you to commit this act of depravity, I don’t know,” Magistrate Prowse said.
“But whatever motivated you to do this needs to be cut out, obliterated, so you don’t do this again.”
As part of his sentence, Magistrate Prowse ordered Keeble pay a $3000 fine and continue to see a psychologist for treatment.