Targeted schoolgirls on local bus routes taking thousands of pictures
A pensioner from Stamford Brook has admitted taking thousands of 'upskirt' pictures and videos of schoolgirls on buses in the local area.
Eight-year-old David Phillips used his black Samsung mobile to secretly snap girls on the 237 and 267 bus routes.
David Phillips. Picture: Court News UK
When police went to arrest him at his home address on August 9 last year they found him waiting for a bus across the road. His phone contained 102 videos and 4461 pictures of school girls all category C, Hammersmith Magistrates Court heard.
When arrested Phillips admitted to taking the pictures but when asked if they were for sexual purposes he said he 'supposed so' adding 'I am 80 so there is nothing much sexual going on if you know what I mean'.
Prosecutor Carly Loftus said, 'Between May and June 2016 a number of reports were received by police relating to a male filming school girls on the buses 237 and 267 from Chiswick. He was using a black mobile phone to do this. 'Enquiries were made to the bus companies and TFL and Mr Phillips was identified as a suspect.’
Ms Loftus said some of the school girls also identified Phillips. Police when it his house but he was not in but saw him across the road at a bus stop.
'They approached him, took him to one side and asked if he had been taking photos of school girls on buses and thought it might be him,' said Ms Loftus. 'He replied 'yes it is'.
Phillips told officers he did not own a computer and just kept the images in his phone. The phone was examined and police found video files and images,' said Ms Loftus. 'They were of school girls and there were a lot of up skirt shots. Some were studio images of female children in provocative positions. He said he took pictures of females he found attractive of various ages when the opportunity arose.'
Phillips, who struggled to hear proceedings from the dock, has a previous conviction from 2010 for a similar offence she he was caught taking up skirt images of girls on an escalator, the court heard.
Magistrate Lord Frederick Ponsonby ordered reports and bailed Phillips ahead of sentence on February 20.
Phillips of, St. Mary's Court, Stamford Brook Road, admitted making indecent images of children and outraging public decency.
January 27, 2017