Pervert banned from every McDonald’s toilet in UK for taking upskirt photos of women

A pervert who was banned from every McDonald’s toilet in the UK for upskirting has been jailed after breaching his court order.

Asere Shumba, 27, was hit with the ban after taking pictures of women in the toilets of a McDonald’s in Surrey and a Walkabout bar in Derby.

Following the offences, an image of the 27-year-old was distributed to restaurant workers so they could identify him if he attempted to use their lavatory.

A court heard that Shumba was spotted by a member of staff heading into the women’s cubicles at a Derby branch of the fast food chain at 6pm on 28 December last year.

The worker, who was aware of his previous offending, followed Shumba into the toilet and told him to leave before police officers were called. Shumba told staff he thought he was in the men’s toilet in an attempt to protest his innocence.

He was later arrested at his home address in Shakespeare Street, Sinfin, Derby, that evening and was charged with breaching his Sexual Harm Prevention Order.

Shumba was handed a jail sentence of 20 weeks on Tuesday (21 February) after admitting the offence at Derby Crown Court.

He had previously been given the five year order after being convicted of two counts of voyeurism in January 2021. The 27-year-old had on two occasions filmed women using the female toilets and was caught in possession of almost 400 upskirt-style photos.

Recorder William Harbage KC previously told him: “The offence of voyeurism is serious as it invades people’s privacy and dignity.”

The judge added it was not clear what drove him to commit the offences but that he clearly ‘got sexual gratification from it.’

Upskirting is a covert type of abuse which involves someone taking a picture under a person’s clothing without their knowledge, with the intention of viewing their genitals, buttocks or underwear beneath clothing.

On 12 April 2019, a new law was introduced to make upskirting a specific offence across England and Wales. It had already been illegal in Scotland since 2010 and in March the Northern Ireland Assembly passed new laws criminalising upskirting.

Prior to the new law in England and Wales prosecutions for upskirting were occasionally brought under the common law offence of outraging public decency, which requires the presence of at least two other people and for the act to be done in a public place.

The criminal offence of upskirting was created under the Voyeurism Act when it received Royal Assent, amending the Sexual Offences Act 2003 to make upskirting an offence of voyeurism. Offenders face up to two years in jail and being placed on the sex offenders register.