‘Voyeur’ brought to Bolton Crown Court for breach of order

Paul Mountain, 47, was jailed for 18 months in 2021 for bizarre crimes where he used the homemade device to “upskirt” girls between the ages of 11 and 16.

Bolton Crown Court heard an order required him to register his bank account with the police, which got him back when an officer visited where Mountain’s home on March 20 this year.

Prosecutor Andy Scott said: “He noticed a further Santander bank card on the floor.”

Mountain had already registered a previous bank account with the police, but the officer found that the second bank account appeared to be linked to a different account number.

The case was heard at Bolton Crown Court (Image: Newsquest)

Mr Scott told the court Mountain was not in the house at this time, but this apparent second account had not been registered with the police.

He said: “And that of course amounted to a breach of the requirements.”

Mr Scott said the breach was “deliberate” but not “serious” or “persistent”.

Mountain, of Bridgeman Street, Farnworth, was first jailed for voyeurism and making indecent images of children at Burnley Crown Court in September 2021.

As well as using his shoe camera device to film up schoolgirl’s skirts, the court heard back in 2021 how he had set up a camera to film a woman as she used the toilet.

After serving his time in prison he was then brought before Bolton Crown Court in January of this year for breaching his order.

He avoided jail back in January and was given an eight-month sentence, suspended for 24 months and was ordered to complete 30 rehabilitation activity requirement days.

But he was brought before Bolton Crown Court again this week after his most recent breach this week, involving the unregistered bank account.

He admitted to both breaching his notification requirement and to breaching his suspended sentence.

Andrew Costello, defending, said that Mountain was entitled to credit after pleading guilty and said the extra card was in effect a “top up card”.

He said: “He’s not sure, it is linked to the account but it has a separate account number.”

Mr Costello said that Mountain had been the victim of “cuckooing” but has since given up taking crack cocaine.

He also reminded the court that Mountain had now been in custody since May 8 this year.

ALSO READ: Voyeur followed schoolgirls around with ‘shoe camera’

ALSO READ: Warning as nearly half of crown court trials delayed

ALSO READ: ‘Things only getting worse’ as hundreds of criminal cases delayed

But Judge Abigail Hudson pointed out that since his original sentence in 2021, Mountain had breached both his order and his suspended sentence.

Addressing him directly, she said: “Your compliance with that order has been negligible, frankly.”

She added: “You have made yourself vulnerable to drug gangs and have been living in, frankly, squalor.

“You are clearly a reasonably intelligent man, but you are sadly not as clever as you think you are.”

Judge Hudson jailed Mountain for 10 months.

Source – INDIA TV