Man arrested in Madrid accused of upskirting more than 500 women

Police in Madrid have arrested a man accused of filming the intimate parts of more than 500 women without their consent while they travelled on the Metro.

The accused made the videos, a practice known as upskirting, using a mobile phone concealed in a backpack. Police say he then uploaded at least 283 of these videos on to pornographic sites where they were viewed millions of times. Police have identified 555 victims, some of them underage.

The man is alleged to have been filming on a daily basis since at least the summer of 2018 when he first published the material. Police say he operated near local railway stations and supermarkets. He apparently then followed his victims and even introduced himself in an effort to get closer and obtain better-quality images.

Related: Man fined £2,000 for upskirting at London tube station

When they raided his home police found a laptop and three hard drives containing hundreds of videos. The accused’s own site had 3,519 subscribers and his videos had been viewed more than 1m times.

The man, identified as a 53-year-old Colombian, was caught in the act while filming on the metro.

Police have managed to identify 29 women, some of them minors, who were filmed over the space of five days. The accused has been remanded in custody pending charges.

Upskirting has become widespread since cameras became a feature of mobile phones, making it possible to make videos without the victim being aware that they are being filmed.

The practice became a criminal offence in Britain in February this year following a campaign by the writer Gina Martin to have it outlawed after she had been upskirted at a music festival. Perpetrators who film under a person’s clothing without their consent face up to two years in prison.

In Spain the practice is categorised as sexual abuse and is punishable with prison.

In South Korea the practice, known as molka, has become endemic. Even the president acknowledged it as “a part of daily life”.

Offenders face large fines and up to five years in prison but campaigners say these penalties are only rarely enforced and police rarely take women’s complaints seriously, despite the arrest of thousands of offenders each year.

Last year more than 20,000 women took to the streets of Seoul to demand a crackdown.