A Swindon man who took photos of young women at the Swindon Designer Outlet and shared them online has returned to court.

In October 2021, Prabhat Sakya, of Bude Road in Rodbourne, received a sexual harm prevention order which is in place for 10 years after sexually assaulting two women on a GWR train heading to Swindon by stroking parts of their bodies without their consent.

Alicia Doble, prosecuting, explained that the 53-year-old, who used to work as a Programme Manager at Imperial College London, also took photos of "young girls in revealing clothing" at the Swindon Designer Outlet and posted them on Instagram.

He is not affiliated with the retail village.

In July, officers made it clear to Sakya that he was not allowed to have iPhones and must only use a laptop with monitoring software installed.

But in September, officers found several electronic devices at his home - which included a Samsung tablet, a coral iPhone XS, an iPhone E13, a HP desktop computer, a lilac iPhone, a red iPhone XS, an Asus laptop, and another iPhone - that the police had not approved.

He was also accused of disposing of a HP laptop before a police inspection. This totalled nine charges of breaching an SHPO between May 21, 2024, and September 12, 2024.

Miss Doble added: "The laptop was open in the kitchen and he produced an iPhone which showed photos of the Gateway Centre.

"This was not the same phone that he had given in. He had got a new laptop without monitoring software."

The defendant's excuse for possessing some of these devices was that he was keeping them as gifts for his estranged wife, only occasionally switching them on to check that they still worked, and that the phones were only used to access Instagram and BBC News.

He has four previous convictions for five offences, which include the 2021 train incident and sexually assaulting a woman in 2019, and two previous failures to comply with the requirements of his SHPO by going on holiday without telling police and renewing his annual registration five days late.

Sakya's defence solicitor, Miss Evans, explained that her client's mental health had deteriorated significantly in 2019 which led to his first conviction, his marriage collapsing, and his job letting him go, he has not been able to find employment since then, has been sectioned for several months, and represented a low risk of harm.

He received a community order which required him to pay a £200 fine and attend up to 20 rehabilitation activity days.

The Instagram account, which is still active and accessible, with the last post in September, contains hundreds of candid photographs of people in public, mainly of women and girls, some of which are sexually suggestive in nature and are captioned with things like "Are you checking me out," "Blue dress," and "Sweet sixteen."

Many of the locations pictured are in Swindon, but other places, like London, Weston Super Mare and even locations abroad are also seen. 

The posts, which show subjects that mostly seem to unaware that they are being photographed date back several years, as far back as 2019.

The page sparked concern on social media last year when it was noticed by members of the public with several people reporting it to Wiltshire Police. 

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