'He creeps me out': Council was justified in banning man from leisure centres says judge
Council chiefs were justified in imposing a further five-year ban on a man accused of repeated inappropriate behaviour towards females at a Co Down leisure centre, a High Court judge ruled today.
Mr Justice McLaughlin rejected claims that the decision to exclude him from all indoor facilities across the Newry, Mourne and Down District area was unlawful and unfair.
“He made no effort to recognise the impropriety of his prior behaviour, to give assurances about future conduct or to offer any explanation as to how the allegations came to be made,” the judge said.
The man, who is not being named, has been repeatedly banned from Kilkeel Leisure Centre following more than a dozen complaints from female users stretching back to 2006.
In a series of incidents it was reported that he had:
- Harassed a woman and her daughter leaving the leisure centre by repeatedly calling the young girl’s name and attempting to engage with her.
- Left two girls feeling uncomfortable by approaching them in the swimming pool to ask for their names and addresses.
- Positioned himself in the shallow end of the pool to continually stare at females, forcing one woman to get out after she had attempted to stare him down.
- Whispered comments in another woman’s ear who immediately left the pool along with her husband.
- Made an unsolicited offer of lifts to another user who stated he “creeps her out”.
Despite being unknown to the complainants, CCTV footage from the leisure centre was used to identify him.
During interviews with staff about his conduct he initially denied attending the facilities on relevant dates and disputed allegations made against him.
In 2025 the man sought reinstatement of his leisure centre membership after a previous five-year exclusion imposed for the alleged unacceptable behaviour ended.
Officials ultimately refused his application and imposed a further five-year ban from all indoor leisure sites within the Newry, Mourne and Down District Council areas.
A safeguarding officer concluded: “To exclude (him) would mitigate or remove the risk of harm to other customers subject to the inappropriate or unreasonable behaviour by him, the risk/potential risk to him from other customers at Kilkeel Leisure Centre, and support and protect council staff.”
Lawyers representing the man applied for a judicial review of the decision, claiming it was procedurally unfair, irrational and in breach of his legitimate expectation.
But rejecting all grounds of challenge, the judge held that he had been given clear and fair chances at a meeting to explain why his membership should be reinstated.
“Rather than assuage the concerns of the council, the applicant’s consistent response was simply to deny the original allegations and to dismiss them as a mixture of fabrication, conspiracy and personal vendetta by others,” Mr Justice McLaughlin said.
“He was afforded more than sufficient opportunity to make his case and to assuage theCouncil’s safeguarding concerns.”
Dismissing the challenge, he confirmed: “It was plainly a decision which lay within the scope of the council’s decision-making discretion and was an appropriate exercise of its management powers in furtherance of public protection objectives.”