A man who was trying to take photos of women at the NSC and in a shop has been given a suspended sentence.

Hasan Gogebakan tried to take an ‘upskirt’ photo at Trend Gift Shop in Port Erin, then was caught holding his phone under a changing cubicle at the National Sports Centre.

He was initially charged with two counts of provoking behaviour and pleaded not guilty to both.

However, the second count was then changed to threatening behaviour and he changed his pleas to guilty for both charges.

Magistrates sentenced the 41-year-old to four months’ custody, suspended for two years, and made him the subject of a two-year suspended sentence supervision order.

He was also ordered to pay £800 prosecution costs, due to work done in preparation for trials after he had initially denied the offences.

Prosecuting advocate Hazel Carroon told the court that Gogebakan, who lives at Queen’s Promenade in Douglas, went to Trend Gift Shop in Port Erin on September 3 last year.

Footage was later found on his phone which showed the camera pointing at the floor, then pointing upwards under a woman’s skirt.

On September 5, a woman was at the NSC in a changing cubicle.

She said that she saw a hand holding a phone come under the partition, between the two cubicles, with the camera facing upwards and believed it was filming or taking pictures.

She reported the incident to staff and when they questioned Gogebakan, he said: ‘You’ve got it all wrong.’

During a police interview, Gogebakan handed in a prepared statement.

In it, regarding the shop incident, he said he had been drinking the night before and had stayed in Port Erin.

He claimed he had gone to the shop and put his phone on ‘record’, so he could film any items that he liked.

He said he had his phone in his hand when he had talked to the complainant but could not recall what he filmed.

Of the NSC offence, Gogebakan claimed he had put his phone on a bench in his cubicle but it had fallen off. He said he had then picked it up and put it on top of his shoe, but it had then fallen again, into the adjacent cubicle, so he had reached under to get it.

Defence advocate Ian Kermode handed in a mitigation bundle to the court.

Mr Kermode said that, in the shop, the phone footage did briefly show it had been pointed up a skirt, but it had been for less than a second and the image taken was blurred, because the camera had been moving.

‘There was no premeditation,’ said the advocate.

‘The victim was not aware it was happening. No indecent bodily images were captured.’

Of the NSC incident, Mr Kermode said that his client accepted he had put his phone under the cubicle for a few seconds but no footage had been found on the phone, even after it had been forensically examined for deleted images.

‘There was no evidence the person was actually filmed,’ said the advocate.

Mr Kermode said that Gogebakan had accepted that his behaviour was inappropriate in a plea document handed in, but added that there was no mention of sexual motivation.

The advocate said that, although one of his client’s guilty pleas had only been entered on the morning a trial was due to take place, it had still spared the victim from being cross-examined.

Mr Kermode went on to say that Gogebakan was from Turkey originally and had no convictions for 11 years. He said the defendant had also written two letters of apology, one for each victim.

Magistrates ordered Gogebakan to pay costs at a rate of £10 per week, deducted from benefits.