Former Gloucester councillor admits upskirting attempt
- Published
Lee Hawthorne was a Conservative councillor until his arrest in July 2019 but continued as an independent councillor until April 2020
A former Conservative councillor has admitted an attempted upskirting offence in a high street fashion store.
Lee Hawthorne, 41, who resigned from Gloucester City Council in April 2020, earlier pleaded guilty to attempted voyeurism at Bristol Crown Court.
It happened at a branch of TK Maxx in Northgate Street in Gloucester on 27 June, 2019.
He pleaded guilty last week to a separate charge of voyeurism, committed between 2015 and 2019 in Gloucester.
Hawthorne, who was arrested in July 2019, is due to be sentenced for both offences on 29 March.
The charge stated Hawthorne, of Abbeydale, Gloucester, attempted to operate a mobile phone beneath another person to "observe their genitals, buttocks or underwear, without their consent, for the purposes of obtaining sexual gratification".
Hawthorne was suspended from the Conservative group of the city council following his arrest in July 2019. He continued to sit as an independent councillor until his resignation in April.