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A station cleaner who covertly took nearly 500 photos of men using the toilet in Nottingham train station has been sentenced.

Carl Shipman, 39, and of Cawston Gardens, Nottingham, pleaded guilty to voyeurism and possessing indecent images of children at Nottingham Crown Court on 29 August.

Yesterday (30/09), the Judge sentenced him to six months in prison. He was ordered to sign the sex offenders register for ten years and also handed a ten year Sexual Harm Prevention Order. This forbids him from having any camera enabled device on his possession in a public place and having any unsupervised contact with boys under the age of 16 without their parent’s consent.

On 13 February 2018 at around 2.30pm, one victim, who was 15-years-old at the time, was using the male toilets in the station when he noticed an iPhone on front camera mode being held underneath the cubicle wall recording him.

He kicked the phone away and quickly left the cubicle, when he saw Shipman running away from the toilets carrying a bag of rubbish.

On 17 April 2018 at around 6.50pm, another victim, a 17-year-old man, was using the male toilets on platform 3.

As the victim went to u the toilet he again noticed a phone screen being held under the cubicle door recording him.

He quickly left the cubicle and having noticed the only other toilet occupied was the one next to him, he waited outside to try and take a picture of the perpetrator.

Not long after, Shipman emerged from the toilets in his cleaning uniform and started making his way towards the station concourse.

The victim asked him to stop multiple times, warning him he had his face on camera, but Shipman ignored him and quickened his pace.

The victim spoke to station staff who advised him to contact police, and BTP officers then attended the station.

A cleaning supervisor identified Shipman from the victim’s photos, and confirmed he was employed as a cleaner at the station by Interserve.

Officers then arrested Shipman at his home address and seized his electronic devices which included three mobile phones and a memory card.

Analysis of these devices found photos and videos relating to 140 separate incidents of voyeurism in public toilets believed to be owned by East Midlands Trains.

From these 140 incidents, 474 still images were captured.

Investigators also found one category C child abuse image on his memory card, and 31 images which were graded as borderline – meaning that they are not illegal but still raise concern. One image depicted Simpson’s family characters performing graphic sexual acts on one another.

In his police interview, Shipman replied no comment to all questions.

Detective Sergeant Ian Wright from British Transport Police said: “Shipman abused his position as a cleaner at the station to record countless indecent images of people covertly, and it is thanks to the quick thinking victims in this case that we were able to identify him and arrest him.

“It is profoundly clear from the hundreds of images we found on his phones that Shipman had absolutely no regard for his victim’s privacy.

“I am pleased to see him handed a custodial sentence and hopeful he will have time to reflect on his sordid behaviour in prison.”