Lancaster man, 38, sexually harassed women online and secretly filmed schoolgirls
A man from Lancaster has been jailed for repeatedly breaching his Sexual Risk Order by taking pictures of women and girls without their consent.
Peter Bebbington also created social media profiles under a false name before sending sexually harassing messages to female profiles who were strangers to him.
He was made the subject of a five-year Sexual Risk Order (SRO) in April 2026 but was later found to have breached it within hours.
On June 15, Bebbington was spotted at a bus stop by an officer and tried to leave the area to stop his phone being inspected.
The phone was seized and found to have Instagram installed and using a different account name – both breaches of his SRO.
Further breaches were then identified following a forensic examination and review of his devices.
Images and videos of women and girls wearing school uniform taken in public places, including shops, a train and buses, were found.
Some of the images were taken the day after he was issued the SRO by Lancaster Magistrates’ Court.
Bebbington also set up 34 Facebook Messenger chat threads using different account names including ‘John Summer, ‘Mike Dalton’ and ‘Peter Ingham’.
He used them to send sexually harassing messages to female profiles, including “You look like filth” and “Are you selling yourself too?”.
The earliest chats began a little over an hour after Bebbington was explicitly told by police not to use Facebook Messenger.
Bebbington, 38, and formerly of Newsham Road, Lancaster, was subject to a suspended sentence order imposed on 12th May following guilty pleas for seven previous breaches of an SRO in March 2025.
He appeared at Preston Crown Court on Wednesday October 28 for sentence, having pleaded guilty to 17 breaches of his SRO.
He was jailed for a total of five years and six months.
PC Adam Weaver of the Management of Sexual Offenders and Violent Offenders team at Lancaster said: “This is an extremely lengthy sentence for breaches of a court order, but reflects Peter Bebbington’s serious and sinister actions in committing the breaches, volume of offending and offending immediately after the SRO was imposed.
“He did this for his own sexual gratification, taking pictures and videos of females, including school children, in public places without their consent and creating social media profiles under a false name to sexually harass strangers.
“I welcome the prison sentence handed out, it shows that breaching orders put in place by the court will not be tolerated.”