A pensioner with a fetish for listening to women urinate claimed he was “desperate” from a stomach upset when caught using ladies’ cubicles.

Perverted Michael Goodwin was spotted "shuffling" into the female lavatories at Herons Leisure Centre in Herne Bay on June 21 this year.

The 67-year-old was subject to a court order at the time banning him from not only entering female and unisex toilets but also from "lingering, waiting and standing" outside public loos.

But Canterbury Crown Court heard that having followed two women into the William Street facilities on two separate occasions, he chose cubicles next to ones they had occupied.

During one toilet visit, he emerged with his joggers lowered and his hands in his groin area before heading into the cubicle which had just been used.

His warped behaviour was reported to police and despite denying he had followed women into the lavatories for sexual gratification, he subsequently revealed he has a fetish for listening to women urinate.

Goodwin, of High View Avenue, Herne Bay, later admitted three breaches of a sexual harm prevention order (SHPO) and breach of a suspended sentence imposed in February this year for three voyeurism offences.

At his sentencing hearing on Friday (August 23), prosecutor Martin Yale told the court Goodwin was spotted sitting on a wall opposite the toilets.

A woman, who had noticed him vaping and walking with a shuffle, went into the lavatories.

She then heard a "shuffling" noise outside her locked cubicle, shortly followed by a similar sound inside the adjacent one.

It was after she had left and was washing her hands that she saw Goodwin emerge, said Mr Yale.

"He walked out of the cubicle and she saw that his joggers seemed to be down a little and his hands on the area of his groin," he told the court.

"He then shuffled into the cubicle she had left and shut the door behind him."

Feeling uncomfortable, the woman left the toilets. Two minutes later, Goodwin came out with his joggers pulled back up and he went back to loitering on the wall again.

She was so concerned about his behaviour that she decided to keep an eye on him from a nearby bench and watched as he "quickly looked around" before following an elderly lady inside.

The eye-witness also went in, with her phone ready to dial 999, said Mr Yale.

"One of the cubicle doors was shut and she assumed it was where the lady had gone," he told the court.

"The defendant came out of the one next to it, saw her, turned around and went back into the cubicle.

"She went outside and hovered nearby. The defendant came out, looked at her, put his head down and went and sat on the wall.

"He kept looking at her, knowing she was watching him. She phoned 999 and he walked away."

Police arrived and arrested Goodwin, who was also found with a phone he had not disclosed to police as required by the same SHPO.

Referring to his interview once in custody, Mr Yale told the court: "He said he went into the female toilets because he had an upset stomach. The two cubicles in the men's were full so he used the ladies.

"He had woken up feeling unwell, he said, but decided to 'risk' going into town to do some shopping.

"He said he used the female toilets on three separate occasions because of his upset stomach and had sat on the wall because he knew he would have to go again.

"The defendant admitted he hadn't tried the men's toilets after the first occasion. He denied following women into the toilets or going in there for his own sexual gratification.

"But in his pre-sentence report he accepted he has a fetish for listening to women urinate."

Goodwin claimed he had "forgotten" to inform his supervising officer about the undeclared phone, adding he could not be "expected to remember everything".

As well as his previous convictions for two offences of voyeurism and one of attempted voyeurism, the pensioner was cautioned in 2021 for outraging public decency.

Jailing Goodwin for a total of two years and 10 months, Recorder Sarah Counsell rejected his explanation of feeling unwell and said he had "deliberately targeted" women for sexual pleasure.

Furthermore, she remarked that a probation officer's reservation as to whether he could be managed safely in the community at the time his suspended sentence was imposed by magistrates had now "come to the fore", as demonstrated by his "continuing engagement in risky behaviours".

Recorder Counsell also commended the eye witness for her actions in observing Goodwin, alerting police and providing her "significantly detailed" account.

Kerry Waitt, defending, had told the court that Goodwin, who has bipolar disorder, was "under no illusion" as to the punishment he would be given.

His SHPO is due to run until February 2031.