The police have disseminated an image of the Sinfin Sex Offender, Asere Shumba, who has been prohibited from all women’s restrooms in the UK. Asere Shumba has been incarcerated for violating a court order after being discovered in the women’s lavatory at a McDonald’s in Derby.
Derby Crown Court was informed that Asere Shumba, residing on Shakespeare Street in Sinfin, was apprehended by a female staff member in the cubicles of the ladies’ lavatory at the St Peter’s Street branch just after 6pm on December 28, 2022.
Asere Shumba was already serving a suspension for earlier photographing women in the restrooms of the Sinfin branch and the defunct Walkabout pub in the Market Place. The photograph was disseminated to restaurant staff, resulting in his subsequent arrest and sentencing.
The 27-year-old was spotted heading into the women’s toilets at the St Peter’s Street branch and officers were called. Asere Shumba was arrested at his home address later that evening.
In December, when Asere Shumba was arrested, a different court heard a statement from a female member of staff in St Peter’s Street. In it, she said “I recognised him and he followed me upstairs and made some conversation with me. I thought he was going to sit down and order some food but instead, I watched as he walked into the female toilets.”
That staff member said there was a woman in the toilets and when they entered she said ‘I think there’s a male in one of the cubicles acting suspiciously’ so she banged on the door and the defendant replied ‘what do you want?’ They said to him ‘you are in the female toilets, you need to get out’ and he replied ‘I thought this was the male toilets?’.”
Serena Varatharajay, prosecuting, said: “He was convicted on June 9, 2021, of voyeurism and that offence was for him hiding in a toilet and taking photographs of a female in cubicle next door. His phone was seized and on it was found images of people.
“On December 28, last year, the defendant was in McDonald’s in Derby and was seen entering the female toilets by a female staff member. She asked him to leave and he replied that he thought it was the male toilets.”
In January 2021 Shumba had been handed a five-year Sexual Harm Prevention Order (SHPO) after being convicted of two counts of voyeurism. On two occasions he had filmed women using the female toilets, once at a McDonald’s restaurant in Surrey and then he was caught again at the former Walkabout bar in Derby.
Asere Shumba was banned from entering any women’s toilets or changing rooms but breached the conditions of the order when he once again entered the female toilets late last year. At that hearing, the same court heard how Asere Shumba locked himself in cubicles then filmed the victims as they went to use the facilities.
On the first occasion, he was spotted and ran out the fast-food outlet, chased by the woman who told how she felt “violated” by what happened to her. And the second time, in Derby, he was identified, arrested by police, slipped his handcuffs and ran off.
Chasing officers caught him and seized his mobile phone on which almost 400 upskirt-style photographs were discovered. Jailing him for 20 weeks, Recorder Graham Huston said: “You now understand that the breaching of that order leads to custody and you have now been remanded for the last eight weeks.
“You will then be on a 12-month licence after that and should you be arrested in similar circumstances you can expect to be returned to custody.”
Lauren Fisher, mitigating, said her client had pleaded guilty to breaching a sexual harm prevention order at the earliest opportunity. She said he had completed all of the unpaid work, treatment programmes and probation service requirements from his last sentence.
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