A MAN caught trying to peek at a young girl under her Colchester swimming pool changing cubicle wall has been jailed.

Sultan Al-Sayed claimed he had toothache and was simply putting his cheek to the floor to ease the pain.

But a judge at Chelmsford Crown Court told the 40-year-old Saudi national he did not believe a word of it and jailed the would-be voyeur for nine weeks.

He recommended Al-Sayed should be deported after he had served his sentence.

Chelmsford Crown Court heard the defendant had come equipped with a mirror so he could ogle people changing in cubicles at Colchester Leisure World on 6 September, last year.

Jailing him for nine weeks, Judge Rodger Hayward-Smith told Al-Sayed, of Pearson Avenue, Hull, North Humberside,: “You went to Colchester Leisure World with a mirror deliberately to spy on people in the changing cubicles.”

One of the cubicles where Al-Sayed was seen contained a ten-year-old girl .

The judge said while there was no evidence Al-Sayed had specifically been targeting children, he had involved this particular girl.

Prosecutor Emma Nash, highlighted the effect on the girl, saying she had been “scared and nervous about the incident”.

The girl had been obliged to come to court to give evidence and had become “much more hesitant”, as a result of her experiences.

Al-Sayed, denied voyeurism, but was found guilty by the jury.

His lawyer, Nneka Akudolu, said he had claimed that at the time he was having trouble with his tooth and was putting his cheek to the floor to “cool it”.

However, the judge told him : “I reject that. You have not shown a flicker of remorse.

“You were looking into a number of cubicles and a ten-year-old girl saw what you were doing. This was aggravated by pre-planning.”