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The Independent UK
The Independent UK
National
Victoria Richards

Wedding guest 'took pictures up skirts due to twitch', court told

A married man accused of taking secret snaps up women's skirts has blamed a "twitch" for his behaviour, a court has heard. 

PhD student Collin Lieberg, 34, was allegedly spotted by guests at a wedding reception taking the photographs on his mobile phone. 

He was also caught on CCTV angling the device so that it had a view beneath women's hemlines, the Old Bailey heard.

The BBC reported that Mr Lieberg, who denies outraging public decency, described himself - and his wife - as "socially awkward". 

He said that on the day of the wedding, which took place at the Oyster Shed pub near London Bridge on 26 July last year, he had drunk up to nine glasses of wine. 

And he said that the alcohol had affected a nervous tic he has suffered from for the past 10 years, which makes his arms, legs and whole body twitch.

Mr Lieberg, a Warwick University student from Shrewsbury, had become "progressively more drunk", the jurors heard.

And he said he was shocked to be confronted by the best man at the wedding, Leo Steele, who he described as "very confrontational".

Mr Steele, a Canterbury Tales theatre producer, told the court that he had asked Mr Lieberg if he had taken the photos up women's skirts.

He said that Mr Lieberg answered "possibly". But before he handed his phone over so that Mr Steele could inspect it, "he had done more than unlock it".

The court was told that no pictures from the wedding had been recovered from the handset.

The trial continues.

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