William Smith Manchester Paedophile
William Smith Manchester Paedophile

William Smith secretly filmed women and children undressing in public changing rooms and sunbeds and using disabled toilets.

He targeted dozens of victims at the Trafford Centre in Manchester, Darwen Leisure Centre, sunbed shops in Greater Manchester and other leisure centre wet rooms across Lancashire over a four-year period.

The 31-year-old used a ‘specially adapted’ mobile phone covered in black tape to film women and children getting changed in adjoining cubicles.

The pervert also ‘manually removed’ air vents at sunbed shops to create a ‘hole’ for his camera and in some cases ‘inadvertently recorded his own face’.

William Smith’s offending first came to light when he was caught filming a 15-year-old girl in the ‘swimming village’ at Darwen Leisure Centre in May 2019.

William Smith, of Darwen, was jailed for two years in 2016 for separate voyeurism and indecent images offences and was a registered sex offender at the time of the latest offences.

He provided a false name to gain membership at Darwen Leisure Centre but ‘did use his genuine address’.

When William Smith’s home on Redearth Road was searched by police they recovered the mobile phone which contained 23 different recordings from Darwen Leisure Centre, including the 15-year-old girl.

The recordings revealed that seven children, aged between six and 15, were also captured on six different clips using the changing cubicles.

A forensic analysis of the mobile phone showed dozens of other incidents at the Trafford Centre and sunbed shops in Rawtenstall and Greater Manchester.

In September 2017, William Smith made five secret videos in disabled toilets at the Trafford Centre.

He placed the camera behind the toilet and then ‘flushed and used the hand dryer to maintain the pretence that he used the facilities’.

The footage showed women pulling down their clothing and using the toilet.

In separate incidents, William Smith also filmed women using changing rooms at different Trafford Centre shops from 2017 to 2019.

A total of 92 other images were connected to sunbed shops and all showed women ‘either undressing to use the sunbed or climbing off to re-dress’.

GPS locations could not be identified for 64 videos showing women changing in wet rooms at different leisure centres in Lancashire.

William Smith pleaded guilty to 18 counts of voyeurism, two counts of attempted voyeurism and two counts of making indecent images of children.

William Smith was jailed for 40 months and ordered to sign the sex offenders register for life.

He was also given a 10-year sexual harm prevention order banning him from ‘entering or loitering outside’ any female-only facilities.

He must also declare all memberships of clubs or leisure centres to police and use his real name.

If you or anyone you know have been affected by the people highlighted in this article, then please report those individuals to the Police on 101 (999 if an emergency) or visit their online resources for further details of the options for reporting a crime. You can also make a report at Crimestoppers should you wish to be completely anonymous. There is help available on our support links page.