Man used phone camera to look under women’s skirts

A PARISIAN chef used the video camera on his phone to peek under women’s skirts as they browsed in a clothes shop.

Pierre Marechal, aged 53, with a rental address at Mount Carmel, Coast Road, Oranmore, Galway, pleaded guilty yesterday before Galway District Court to breaching the peace by engaging in threatening, abusive and insulting behaviour at Penneys, Eyre Square, Galway, on April 14 last year.

Inspector Ernie White told the court that staff became concerned when they noticed Marechal hanging around the store and acting suspiciously on several occasions over a two- month period.

Gardaí asked Marechal why he was hanging around the store so much and he pointed to a shopping bag under a clothing rack and told them it contained his mobile phone which had the video recorder switched on.

Marechal confessed immediately that he had left the video on his phone in ‘record’ mode in hopes of capturing images up unsuspecting women’s skirts as they shopped.

Defence solicitor Sean Acton said his client was a bit of a loner and he had lost his job as a chef around this time. He said Marechal was from Paris but had been living in Ireland for 12 years and had no friends or family.

“He’s a bit of a loner and this was his way of passing the time. I’d say he has certain difficulties and he’s deeply ashamed,” Mr Acton said.

Gardaí checked Marechal’s house but the French man had not downloaded any of the images to his computer.

The judge observed that Marechal must have been really annoyed to find that 99% of Irish women wear trousers. “But no one was being harassed and this was done undercover,” Judge Mary Fahy said.

“Yes, quite literally,” the solicitor replied.

She said it seemed Marechal had difficulty forming relationships.