A Penticton man who was caught peeping in a women’s bathroom has been given an 18-month suspended sentence.
Skye Dylan Shillitto offered a guilty plea to a single charge of secretly observe/record nudity in a private place on Monday at Penticton provincial court.
Crown counsel Duncan Campbell said the charge stems from an incident on Dec. 6, 2011 where a woman in her 30s saw a man peaking under the bathroom stall at Cherry Lane shopping centre. Campbell said the woman screamed and the man fled on foot, but mall employees could not catch him.
A few days later the woman then saw the peeper at another shopping centre and got the licence plate number of the vehicle he was driving. RCMP confronted Shillitto, who was the registered owner, and he acknowledged he was involved in the bathroom incident.
“He said some nonsense about a tissue being on the floor and then when the woman screamed he got scared and ran away,” said Campbell of what Shillitto told RCMP.
Defence counsel Michael Welsh told the court his client was a groundskeeper at Fairview Mountain Golf Course but lost his job once this incident became public.
“He is embarrassed and ashamed and he has taken responsibility,” said Welsh, adding Shillitto has sought after help on his own and is now seeing a mental health councillor.
Shillitto is to have no contact with the victim and is not to be found in any public changing area for the next 18 months.
“I feel terrible for what I have done. I acted inappropriately and I am doing my best to deal with that and move on with my life,” said Shillitto.