Paul Manning: Upskirt pervert filmed bus schoolkids, shop worker
Sleazebag sparky: An electrician who took videos under the skirts of schoolgirls and shop workers also had child porn on his phone.
South East
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A creep videoed the privates of schoolgirls on a Mt Eliza bus and upskirted an Eastland shop worker, a court has heard.
Paul Manning was also found with a disgusting homemade film of a young boy having sex with an adult female on his phone.
The 46-year-old electrician pleaded guilty to a series of sex-related, theft, drug and driving charges at the Frankston Magistrates’ Court on Monday.
The court heard police arrested Manning on an unrelated matter in May 2020 and asked to see his phone, to which he agreed.
On that device were videos he had taken on a bus of young girls from Mt Eliza schools.
He had placed his phone on his lap while seated and filmed under their skirts as they stood in the aisle, taking images of their “buttocks and underwear”.
The pervert had also videoed an adult female Eastland shop worker while she was reaching up to a high shelf to help him with a product, focusing on the woman’s “buttocks and underwear”.
Officers then found a paedophile film and graphic underage sexual screenshots stored on the same phone.
And he was also caught dealing cannabis from a house, nabbed driving while drugged or unlicensed and found to have nicked $150 worth of electrical gear from Frankston Bunnings.
When interviewed he admitted the upskirting offences, saying he was “just being stupid” when videoing the schoolgirls and he had behaved “irrationally” when filming the Eastland worker.
He was jailed in 2014 for similar crimes but successfully appealed that sentence, and was instead placed on a corrections order.
Defence lawyer Jackson McLeod said Manning initially didn’t think his “surreptitious” filming of females was a bad thing, but since then had demonstrated insight into his offending.
“He now knows it can ruin a girl’s life,” Mr McLeod said.
He said his guilty plea had spared any of the victims having to attend court, which deserved a sentence discount, and he was very remorseful for his actions.
Magistrate Dr Michael King said children were entitled to use a bus safely without this sort of “monstrous” activity, and shop workers should also be able to do their job without being violated.
“These incidents happened in public,” Dr King said.
“Children should be safe, not exposed to such abhorrent behaviour.”
Manning was jailed for 10 months, minus 150 days he has already served, and sent for a corrections order assessment.
Dr King said if he was found unsuitable for the order he will instead be sentenced to 15 months behind bars.
