A 45-YEAR-OLD man who hid a camera in a supermarket changing room to film women undressing has escaped jail.

Alan Hancox, of Hunts Lane, Stockton Heath, attached a small camera to the light fitting of a unisex changing room in Asda Westbrook on December 19.

Earlier that day he had tried to fix the same camera in a changing room in the Moss Side branch of the supermarket, in Manchester, but failed.

Warrington Crown Court heard last Thursday that Hancox had also used a covert camera to film up women’s skirts.

A shop assistant at Westbrook Asda spotted the filming device while cleaning the changing room.

Peter Hussey, prosecuting, said: “In the cubicle there appeared to be a foreign bit of plastic dangling down. The shop assistant realised it was attached to a USB, a light was glowing and she noticed it was active. She called security and the camera was taken down.”

When police analysed the footage they found a clear image of Hancox fixing the camera into place.

Officers released the image to the press in early January.

Hancox saw the photograph on Sky News’ website, realised he was in trouble and confided in a work colleague.

Mr Hussey added: “In early January the work colleague received a phone call from the defendant who said his car was stuck in snow and he went to help him. When he arrived at a pub he was not stuck but in a state of high anxiety and said he was in trouble because he was in the news.”

His workmate drove the defendant home and Hancox asked him to look after his laptop, which he agreed to.

But after speaking to his wife he reported it to his bosses and the police.

In interview Hancox said he was in the fitting rooms that day and had seen the device and tried to remove it.

Police examined his laptop and discovered footage he had taken by attaching the camera to his shoe, using it to film up women’s skirts in the Moss Side Asda.

In a second interview Hancox admitted he had done it ‘because he loves women’.

Jane Dagnall, defending, said: “He accepts what he has done is quite wrong. What he has done, he is extremely remorseful about. It’s embarrassing and degrading for a man of 45 years of age. These offences are extremely out of character for him.”

She added that he had been under stress and had been coping with debts, had lost his job, was just starting up his own business with the support of his wife and was undergoing counselling.

Judge Thomas Teague, sentencing him, said: “There is a strong public interest in tackling whatever problems you have.”

He was handed an eight-month prison sentence, suspended for two years, ordered to attend the Northumbria Sex Offenders’ Group Programme and handed a five-year restraining order banning him from entering any unisex or female changing room and Asda store in England and Wales. He was banned from owning a camera or recording equipment except on a mobile phone.