SCHOOLCHILDREN were among alleged victims who contacted police in the six months since the creation of the new “upskirting law”, an investigation has found.

The first figures on the impact of the Voyeurism (Offences) Act show that almost one victim a day has contacted police since its introduction in April 2019.

Gina Martin, who led the campaign against upskirting, praised the impact of the law on bringing perpetrators to justice.

Data obtained under Freedom of Information laws from 35 police forces found there had been 153 incidents reported to them in the 182 days since the law was created.

This was up from 94 incidents among 25 constabularies with available data during 2018, the year before the ban was introduced, and up from 78 reports over the two-year period from April 2015 to April 2017.

Campaigners previously complained that the lack of a specific upskirting law meant police were unsure how to deal with allegations, and therefore many crimes went unreported.

New data shows the vast majority of incidents between April and October 2019 involved female victims, taking place in schools, shopping centres and other public places.

Several forces reported teenage victims among those caught up in investigations, which included a 14-year-old girl on a bus, according to Sussex Police.

Separate data from the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) showed ten men were convicted of 16 offences in 2019.

This included convicted paedophile Stuart Bulling, the first person jailed under the new law, after he was caught following teenage girls around a supermarket in Lancashire, in September, the CPS said.

Campaigner Ms Martin, who spent nearly two years fighting to create a specific upskirting law after two men who took a picture up her skirt at a festival in 2017 went unpunished, welcomed the statistics.

She said: “The Voyeurism Act only came into use eight months ago and the difference in charges and reporting is already up greatly.

“Among those who were charged was a convicted paedophile and a man who police subsequently found had 250,000 indecent images of children.

“Upskirting doesn’t exist in a vacuum.

“Sexual assault and violence is all linked, and I’m just so happy this law is holding those who perpetrate it accountable.”