Paris has promised to crack down on men who spy on women in swimming pool changing rooms after a surge of complaints about voyeurs using hidden cameras, reports The Times.
Pierre Rabadan, the deputy mayor in charge of the capital’s 40 public pools, ordered daily inspections of changing cabins and staff training, and suggested a possible return to single-sex changing areas after women posted their experiences on social media.
The wave began after Laurène Daycard, a 37-year-old journalist and author who specialises in violence against women, confronted a man filming her with a phone hidden in a backpack on the floor of his adjoining cabin.
The man, whom she described as a “puny 40-year-old in swimming briefs” initially denied everything but confessed to filming many other women including “very young girls” after he was arrested and spent the night in custody, Daycard said. Seventeen other women had recently reported being spied on by men at the same pool in the 19th arrondissement, she wrote on Instagram.
Rabadan, one of 35 deputies to Anne Hidalgo, the mayor of Paris, acknowledged the problem. “Women must be able to feel safe in all public facilities, especially in places of wellbeing and sport such as swimming pools,” he said. The situation in Paris is part of “a nationwide phenomenon against which urgent action is needed”, the council said.
Read more of this report from The Times.