A SEX offender must change his behaviour if he wants to use a video recorder in public again, a York judge said.

Last May, York magistrates made a lifelong criminal anti-social behaviour order banning Andrew Mackie, 33, from carrying anything capable of taking moving pictures, including mobile phones, in public anywhere in England and Wales.

They saw the film he had made on August 6, when he roamed the streets of York with his camera, zooming in on women's bottoms and bra straps.

They also confiscated his camcorder, the third time courts had taken video cameras off him for similar actions.

Mackie, of Oxbridge Lane, Stockton-on-Tees, appealed to York Crown Court against the length of the ban. He has previous convictions for indecent assault.

Judge David Bentley QC sitting with two magistrates upheld the ban's length, saying York magistrates had been "sensible and responsible" by trying to curb his behaviour without sending him to prison. Other methods had failed.

"He has only got himself to blame for the fact he is in his present predicament. He has repeatedly offended," the judge said.

He called Mackie, a "potential menace to women" and reminded him that the law allowed him to apply for the order to be lifted or varied after two years. But to succeed, he would have to keep out of trouble and commit no further offences.

Mackie's barrister Paul Williams said the ban was "oppressive and overtly severe", particularly as the time would come when all mobile phones would have cameras and he would therefore be forbidden to have an important tool of everyday life.

Prosecutor David Garnett said that a store detective followed Mackie on August 6 when he noticed him filming women and alerted police.

The film in his camera had pictures of women taken in York and Scarborough. He had previous convictions in Teesside and Gateshead for similar offences.

Mackie's ban was imposed for a public order offence which he admitted.

He was also given a two-year community rehabilitation order.

Updated: 09:25 Saturday, July 10, 2004