Kennedy News & MediaA ‘respectable-looking’ man was caught on camera casually watching hardcore porn in a public library, just feet from where children were browsing the shelves.
Fellow library user Chris Winfield was ‘disgusted’ when he realised a man on a computer in front of him was watching a selection of ‘beyond inappropriate’ porn clips, one of which even appeared to include a violent, assault-like scenario.
Initially finding it funny the clip had popped up on the man’s screen, Chris whipped his phone out and started filming. He soon realised however, the videos hadn’t popped up accidentally, as increasingly graphic videos began to play.
You can watch Chris’ video of the ‘respectable-looking man’ watching porn here:
Painter and decorator Chris, from Crawley, West Sussex, said:
The bloke was in his mid to late 30s and was fairly respectable looking. He was very well dressed, had clean clothes – he wasn’t the stereotypical weirdo pervert.
There were loads of children and young adults in the library at the time standing nearby and looking at books. It’s vile to do something so brazen and graphic in front of children.
Chris added:
We live in a world where people pretty much do what they want and if that’s what he likes fair enough but there’s a time and a place for everything.
That’s not the place or the time, it’s totally wrong. He didn’t have a care in the world, it was just weird.
Mindful how children and young adults had been browsing the library shelves next to the computer section minutes earlier, Chris stopped filming and reported the man to library staff – who was promptly booted out.
The strange incident happened at around 11.45am, with Chris adding:
I looked up and the next thing I know I’m looking at that and thinking ‘wow, hello what’s going on here?’
His phone was plugged into the machine and it looked like he was doing it off his phone. He was sat there twiddling and picking his ears watching extreme, hardcore porn, it was beyond inappropriate.
The first thing I thought is ‘I’ve got to get this on video’ but after a while I thought it was getting a bit disgusting so I switched the video off and went to tell the lady behind the counter.
A West Sussex County Council spokesman said:
Understandably the member of public was shocked by what he witnessed. This sort of behaviour, as reported, is completely unacceptable, but actually incredibly rare in our libraries.
We are currently investigating how he came to access such material on a library computer.
The librarian swiftly asked the man to pack up his things and leave. However, Chris believes he should’ve received a harsher punishment, such as having his membership revoked and a lifetime ban from the library.
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Charlie Cocksedge is a journalist and sub-editor at UNILAD. He graduated from the University of Manchester with an MA in Creative Writing, where he learnt how to write in the third person, before getting his NCTJ. His work has also appeared in such places as The Guardian, PN Review and the bin.