A PERVERT put his mobile phone in a toilet and recorded women in a cubicle inside.

Thomas Stephens recorded himself setting up the camera in the unisex toilet in East Grinstead.

The 26-year-old was found guilty of voyeurism at Brighton Magistrates’ Court.

It was revealed the toilets were used by women and teenage girls in particular.

When police searched Stephens’ home they found a laptop which included internet searches for indecent images of incest, rape, and “daughters defecating”.

“He has a predilection to seeing children defecating,” prosecutors said.

But no charges were brought in relation to the laptop images, as it could not be proved Stephens was responsible for the searches.

His defence team said he “could not remember” putting the phone down in the toilet.

Magistrates ordered Stephens to complete 220 hours of community service and placed him on the sex offenders’ register for five years.

Elizabeth Green, prosecuting, said the voyeurism offence took place in East Grinstead in April last year.

A woman, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, saw the phone on the floor recording her.

Ms Green said: “One woman could be seen sitting on the toilet, flushing the toilet and leaving.

“The images are not clear, but another woman is then seen using the toilet, and her intimacy can be seen.

“She realised it was recording and stopped the film.”

The prosecutor said police searched Stephens’ home and seized a laptop.

Ms Green said: “On the laptop it shows a number of internet searches for indecent images of incest, rape, ‘extra young girls’.

“For sexual gratification he has a predilection for children defecating.”

Siobhan Lawson, defending, said Stephens was not questioned about images on a laptop computer and has faced no criminal charges for it.

Stephens, of Lister Avenue, East Grinstead, has bi-polar disorder and had a breakdown in January, shortly before the incident.

Ms Lawson said: “As for why that phone was put in the toilet in the first place, he tells me simply that he cannot remember doing it.”

But he accepted that the women affected would have been distressed and alarmed.

Magistrate Joanna Brown ordered Stephens to complete unpaid work, and to pay £650 court costs, with an £85 surcharge.

Stephens agreed to pay the money back at a rate of £100 per month, and chose to sign on the sex offenders’ register at Crawley Police Station.