A creep who tried to film a 15-year-old girl under a cubicle wall at one of the most popular water parks in Wales has avoided jail.

Liam Warlow, 27, was caught on camera looking shifty in the unisex changing room at LC2 in Swansea – before darting out the room when his device is spotted by the teenager.

He had been visiting the leisure centre with friends and family, and was completely dried and dressed following his swimming session when he saw his victim in the communal area of the room.

In footage released by the Crown Prosecution Service, he can be seen fixing his hair in the mirror with the girl behind him before jumping back into his cubicle.

Judge Geraint Walters told Warlow: ‘Having set eyes upon her, you quite purposefully, and with a fair degree of determination, hung about in the changing area — including viewing her through a mirror at one stage — until she entered a cubicle.

‘You entered the adjoining cubicle, and while there you used your phone to film her.’

When the teen, who was at the centre with her mother, looked down and saw the phone ‘plainly recording’ with herself on the screen, she kicked it away.

Warlow can then be seen rushing out of the building without meeting up with his friends and family.

Liam Warlow is seen lurking around the changing room at LC2 after spotting his victim (Picture: Crown Prosecution Service)

After the girl catches him in the act, he is seen grabbing his bag and scrambling to get out the centre (Picture: Crown Prosecution Service)

When he was arrested at his then-partner’s home two days after the incident, he initially told the police he had accidentally dropped the phone and it had ‘managed to start recording by itself’.

Judge Walters said: ‘I would have to be very naive to accept that proposition, as would a jury, had you tried that one on them.’

Warlow also insisted he couldn’t remember the password to access the ‘private area’ of his phone.

At Swansea Crown Court, he pleaded guilty to observing a private act for sexual gratification, and was sentenced on December 20.

The judge said ‘most members of the public would probably expect me to send you to prison today’, but added that sentencing guidelines led him to suspend a six-month jail term for two years.

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Warlow will need to take a 43-day program to help tackle his issues around filming in public for sexual excitement, and will also be placed on the sex offenders register.

Additionally, he will be subject to a sexual harm prevention order for seven years.

Judge Walters told him: ‘Your conduct that day has, for a considerable period of time, blighted you. And it will.

‘You will be on the sex offenders register. You’ve lost your partner, by the looks of it. No doubt in any future relationship you have, you will end up coming under the scrutiny of social services.’

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Liam Warlow initially told the police he had dropped the phone and it had ‘managed to start recording by itself’.