A man ‘pleasured himself’ while spying on a police officer who was using a toilet.
Retired banker Graham Williams was caught peeping through a crack in a cubicle in a public convenience at Victoria Park in Salisbury on 31 March this year.
The male victim, an off-duty Metropolitan Police constable, noticed his eye in the gap at around 1pm – before going to confront the 63-year-old defendant.
As the officer opened the cubicle door, he found Williams breathing heavily and stoking his erect penis in an up and down motion. The victim described the man as “really creepy”.
On Friday (6 June), prosecutor Ryan Seneviratne told Salisbury Magistrates’ Court that Williams was staring at the officer after he left the cubicle, leaving him feeling “scared”.
He said the victim had been “walking along enjoying the sunshine” before the incident.
Wiltshire Police were called to the scene and arrested Williams. He told the officers: “My life is over, I don’t want anyone to find out”.
In a statement read out in court, the man described being sexually assaulted in his role as a police officer – but hopes not to witness such behaviour on his days off work.
He spoke about feeling “vulnerable and alarmed”, as he did not have any police equipment.
Williams, of Feversham Road, Salisbury, pleaded guilty to a charge of indecent exposure. He audibly sobbed in the dock throughout the court hearing.
Raymond Tan, defending, said his client had been struggling with his mental health.
“He knows he has difficulties and is trying to deal with his difficulties”, he told the magistrates. Adding that: “He was suffering from some mental issues, a mental breakdown – and that why he acted the way he did”.
Mr Tan said Williams retired from banking during the pandemic, and that’s when he started “going downhill”. He said that the defendant is full of remorse and embarrassed by his actions.
“It was public, but it was private… nobody else saw it other than the victim himself.”
Magistrates ordered a pre-sentence report and granted Williams unconditional bail. He will be sentenced at the same court on Monday 21 July.
