Thread by @WomensRightsNet

Leisure centres across the country are becoming crime scenes as sexual predators take advantage of easy access to women and girls getting undressed in the changing room cubicle next to them.

Here we bring you four examples where men have filmed women and girls by sliding a phone under or over a cubicle partition - every one of which could have been prevented if the leisure centre provided single-sex changing rooms for swimmers. 🧵 1/5

In Wales, a man loitering in the unisex changing area at the LC2 in Swansea spotted his prey - a teenage girl - going into a cubicle and entered the one next to it to film her. She spotted his phone, kicked it away and the pervert ran away.

We know what happened because it was caught on CCTV and shown in court. The criminal received a six month jail sentence suspended for two years. 2/5

In Northern Ireland, a voyeur photographed a child at the South Lake Leisure Centre in Craigavon.

Upper Bann DUP MLA Jonathan Buckley said he was aware of the incident and would be seeking an urgent meeting with officials at Armagh, Banbridge and Craigavon Borough Council.

‘It has been brought to my attention by local parents that there are concerns with the safeguarding of children in the unisex changing facilities in South Lake Leisure Centre,’ he said.

‘In this day and age where photographic and video technology is so easily accessible, we really cannot underestimate the potential dangers posed to children when changing in these settings.’

We agree. 3/5

In Scotland, a man filmed a child by placing his mobile phone under her changing room door. Inverclyde Leisure urged visitors using the facilities to 'remain vigilant' and said it ‘discouraged the use of mobile phones in the changing rooms’.

‘Discouraged the use of mobile phones’ … how about providing women and children with safer, single-sex facilities? 4/5

In England, a girl in her teens, was in a changing cubicle at the Wycombe Leisure Centre in Handy Cross, Buckinghamshire, when she saw a hand holding a mobile phone underneath the cubicle wall with the camera pointing towards her.

Investigating officer PC Laura Potter from Oxford’s Assessment and Investigation Unit said: ‘Voyeurism is an extremely intrusive crime, and this has been an upsetting and embarrassing ordeal for the victim.’

Mixed-sex changing ‘villages’ are an open invitation to predatory men. We say, the leisure industry, local councils, architects and the Sports Councils, that promote mixed-sex changing in the name of ‘inclusion’, must wake up to their responsibilities to keep women and children safe.

The safest changing room is a single-sex changing room.

Read our leisure centre reports here: womensrights.network/wrn-reports 5/5