A FORMER call centre worker arrested on suspicion of spying on women in a public toilet claims he had only been in the ladies' conveniences because the gents had been full when he was caught short.

Martin Andrew Oliver appeared before Swansea Crown Court yesterday to face a charge of attempted voyeurism following his arrest at the public toilets in Victoria Park on March 21 this year.

Prosecuting, Patrick Griffiths said police had been called to the facilities opposite the city's Guildhall after a member of the public had gone to use the toilet, but had noticed a hole in a partition wall, next to a locked cubicle.

Katherine Davies told the court she had been walking her dog when she first visited the cubicle, and returned almost two hours later after returning home and discussing her experience with her partner Mark Fall.

The couple then went together to the site, and Miss Davies twice inspected the cubicle again, noting she could see no feet under the locked cubicle, and that a sanitary bin inside the unit had moved.

Oliver, 47, of Maliphant Street, Hafod, emerged from the toilet as the couple were calling the police as they waited outside, and confronted him as he tried to walk away.

Miss Davies said: "I remember saying 'what are you doing in the ladies', and he said the gents was full so he had to use them.

"He had started to try and roll a cigarette which he could not do because he was shaking so much."

Miss Davies and Mr Fall told police that they had been outside the toilet for between 15 to 20 minutes before Oliver had come out of the toilet.

But the figure was disputed by Oliver in interview with police, when he claimed he had been inside the ladies convenience for only five minutes at the most.

DC Simon Davies read to the court a transcript of an interview with Oliver, who had worked at a call centre in Llansamlet.

In it, Oliver, originally from Haverfordwest, was asked why, after being confronted outside the ladies' toilet, he had gone into the gents. His response was that he had a nasty taste in his mouth, and had gone into the toilet to spit.

He also said he had begun visiting toilets more frequently, after suffering from gallbladder pancreatitis, and suddenly needed to visit the Victoria Park toilet during a walk from his home to Mumbles and back.

DC Davies said no images had been recovered of him from CCTV on the route he claimed to have taken, and also revealed that a tissue with semen on it was recovered from the cubicle.

The trial continues today.

nino.williams@swwmedia.co.uk