A pervert who spied on two nine-year-old boys as they got changed at an Amersham swimming pool has been jailed for 12 months.

The victims of self employed musician Robin Bowman spotted him holding a phone under the frame of the cubicle they were changing in at the Chiltern Pools to film them getting undressed, Aylesbury Crown Court was told.

Bowman told the boys he “didn’t know” what he was going to do with the footage he had just shot, before asking one of them if he could see his penis.

The court heard the 64-year-old, of Trevor Gardens, Ruislip, admitted to probation officers he had committed numerous similar offences but had never been discovered until he was caught in the act on May 16.

After being rumbled Bowman attempted to leave the swimming pool as if nothing had happened, the court was told, but was apprehended by the centre manager after he gave chase on foot. Bowman said “lots of strange things happen in changing rooms” when questioned about his actions by staff, the court heard.

Bowman initially denied what had happened when interviewed by police but he pleaded guilty to causing or inciting a child under 13 to engage in sexual activity and to voyeurism during an earlier court hearing, after officers discovered the video in the deleted items section of his phone.

He was jailed for a total of 12 months, ordered to sign the Sex Offenders’ Register for the next ten years and made the subject of an order that bans him from having unsupervised contact with under 16s, having a phone or camera capable of storing digital images or videos, and from entering changing facilities at sports clubs where children are present.

Judge Kristina Montgomery said Bowman admitted to the probation service he would seek “sexual stimulation from young boys changing”.

Passing sentence, the judge said: “You approached them in the pool to give them some tutelage in diving. You hoped it would endear them to you and you to then, so that you might go about what had by then become your habit.

“When they went to the cubicle they quite understandably, and without any embarrassment, shed their trunks ready to change. You were in the adjacent cubicle, anticipating that moment. You filmed those boys in their naked state.

“When asked what you were going to do with the footage, you gave the frankly troubling reply that you did not know.

“Had you been dextrous enough, or the story been different, you would have continued to film throughout the entire episode. Your intent was you would have a souvenir of what had happened.

“They remained, for some time afterwards, extremely distressed as they realised they had met the very man teachers and adults warn them against contact with.”

She added: “The manager is to be commended for the way he sought you out and detained you, and sought the footage you recorded."