Voyeur used camera to spy up skirts of women

Nov 20 2009 by Kim Carmichael, The Journal

A SOCIAL worker who used a hidden camera to film up women’s skirts has been struck off the register.

Michael Bird, 55, admitted using a digital camera hidden in a sports bag to capture images of unsuspecting females while visiting supermarkets and women’s clothing stores in Newcastle.

A General Social Care Council (GSCC) conduct hearing in central London yesterday was told that Bird, of Cheviot View, Ponteland, worked as a senior social worker in North Tyneside Council’s emergency duty team at the time of carrying out the offences on four separate occasions in June 2008.

The panel heard how Bird was arrested on June 25 of that year by Northumbria Police, interviewed and later received a caution for voyeurism after admitting using observing equipment in a department store just before being detained.

Bird told officers he had used a tennis racquet bag to conceal a digital camera taping down the record button. He had adapted the equipment further by putting a piece of fabric over the camera lens to create the illusion the item of clothing was sticking of out the bag.

Nirupar Uddin, presenting for the GSCC said Bird had “adapted the tennis racquet bag in order to view under adult females’ skirts and that those images caught were for his own personal gratification”.

It was alleged Bird used his hidden camera to film up women’s skirts on June 24 at Tesco in Kingston Park and Sainsbury’s in Gosforth High Street. He was also alleged to have captured footage in the same manner on June 25 at River Island in Eldon Square and lastly Fenwick’s department store.

Police found some images from June 24 had been edited and placed on his home computer and immediately alerted his employer.

The recovered images made reference to women’s upper thighs, bottoms and partially covered genitalia. When asked about his arrest, Bird initially told managers he had been involved in a fight, but was then forced to come clean stating he “did not know what had come over him”. He was suspended from his post on June 26.