A registered sex offender was spotted taking "hundreds" of pictures of women at a Pride event by plain clothes police officers.
Andrew Smoggie - also previously known as Andrew Mackie, 51, of Thelwall Lane, Warrington, was caught acting "suspiciously" around women during Manchester Pride on Peter Street in the city.
When police checked his phone they found hundreds of pictures of women and they suspected many were taken at Pride. Specialist officers had detected that Smoggie was walking around with his phone to his ear, but the screen was discreetly in photo mode.
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Police officers caught him taking a picture of a woman who was unconscious of his actions and they confronted him.
After being spoken to by police he was identified as a registered sex offender with an order preventing him from taking pictures of any female not known to him whilst in a public.
Smoggie was charged with a breach of his Sexual Harm Prevention Order (SHPO). A SHPO is a court order that can be requested by the police, imposed in court when there is a specific concern about an individual. It can remain in place for at least five years - or can be imposed by a court indefinitely – and any breach is a criminal offence.
Conditions for a SHPO can consist of telling the police what devices they own, who they are in contact with, and, in exceptional cases, restricts where they can and cannot go in the community.
He was remanded in police custody and appeared at Manchester & Salford Magistrates court on Monday, August 29 where he pleaded guilty.
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