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19th Nov 2021

Woman horrified to find shop employee scrolling through her intimate photos for 15 minutes

Kieran Galpin

Photos

The man has since been sacked

Police were alerted to an incident involving a mobile phone shop and one of its employees scrolling through a customer’s intimate photos for fifteen minutes.

After dropping her phone and smashing it, 28-year-old Louise Johnson took the phone to be fixed at The Mobile Doctor in Worcester on Saturday 13 November, where she was charged £85 for the repair.

Upon collecting the device, Johnson caught a male employee scrolling through intimate underwear and bikini snaps on the her phone.

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She claims to have grabbed the phone from him, but the employee allegedly scratched her while snatching it back.

The police later confirmed that he had been scrolling through the images for 15 minutes. But the police were unable to do anything because of a technicality. Because the man had not shared or downloaded the images, he had technically committed no crime.

“As soon as I walked in, I saw him lock my phone and put it to the side, but I saw my wallpaper, so I knew it was mine,” Johnson said.

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“I asked whether my phone was ready, and he told me it would be another hour as someone had to come and finish repairing the frame.

“But I knew he’d been on my phone, so I asked for it back, swiped up to see my most recent tabs and saw that he was looking through all my photographs from years ago.”

She confirmed that there were images on the device that she had sent to her boyfriend and no one else.

“I felt completely violated. It’s creepy and perverted to go through someone else’s most private pictures without their permission.”

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But when she asked for the man’s name, police informed her they could not divulge that information due to GDPR.

“I almost fell over in shock. Basically a strange man can rifle through my private pictures without permission but his identity is protected because of data protection? How is that right?”

The shop has since responded to the news, with manager Malik Ali saying: “We have resolved the issue in the presence of police. The worker involved has been sacked. We have apologised to the customer. Nothing like this will ever happen again in future.”

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