William Kidd jailed four years for semen attacks on women in Cheshire supermarkets

William Kidd, 27, was sentenced to four years in prison after admitting 11 counts of sexual assault in supermarkets across Cheshire and Greater Manchester.

Stockport man convicted of 25 offences including sexual assault and voyeurism

William Kidd, 27, of Stanhope Street, Stockport, was sentenced to four years in prison on Friday 29 May at Manchester Crown Court after admitting 11 counts of sexual assault against women in supermarkets, the Daily Express reports.

CCTV footage captured Kidd on five separate occasions in store aisles across Cheshire and Greater Manchester, squirting a substance from a bottle onto the hair and backs of female shoppers without their knowledge. Forensic analysis later confirmed the substance was his own semen. Many of the victims had no awareness of what had been done to them.

The offending took place at stores in Macclesfield, Handforth and Stanley Green in Cheshire, and at locations in Denton and Stockport in Greater Manchester. Footage recovered from Kidd's phone also showed he had filmed up the skirt of a woman pushing a supermarket trolley.

Kidd was also found to have stalked women between May and September of the same year, following them around stores before spraying them with the liquid. When security guards challenged him, he told them: "I'm a sex addict" and "I did it to get a sexual thrill", Manchester Crown Court heard.

In total, Kidd faced 25 charges: 11 counts of sexual assault, five counts of voyeurism, eight counts of filming women beneath their clothing, and one count of possession of cannabis. Alongside the four-year custodial sentence, he was handed an indefinite sexual harm prevention order.

Senior crown prosecutor Shannen Carey, a specialist lawyer in the CPS Merseyside and Cheshire rape and serious sexual offences unit, said Kidd had become "a prolific offender" over roughly four months, targeting women "who were completely unaware of what he was doing and were simply shopping."

"He clearly gave no thought at all to how these women would feel," Carey said. "The effect of what he did will no doubt stay with the victims for a long time, and he is now a convicted sex offender." Carey also thanked the victims, retail staff and Cheshire Police for their roles in securing the prosecution.

DC Tiffany Berry-Perkin said after sentencing that Kidd had "deliberately targeted innocent women as they went about their everyday lives, entirely unaware of the depraved acts he was committing against them." She added: "His behaviour is completely unacceptable, and I welcome the fact that he is now being held accountable behind bars, where he can no longer pose a danger to women in our communities."

Source: Daily Express