You'd think an upskirt photo, taken without the woman's permission, would be some sort of crime. The invasion of privacy and the sexualised nature of it is surely enough to be counted as sexual harassment. Right? Wrong. Well, at least if you're in Massachusetts, where today in FFS news a high court has ruled that a man who took upskirts of strangers while on public transport wasn't doing anything illegal.
Michael Robertson had been arrested in 2010 after various women had noticed him taking the photos of them. Police set up a sting and caught him doing it and the case reached court. However, Robertson cannot be convicted of an offence, because the current voyeurism laws only apply if the victim isn't fully clothed.
'A female passenger on a MBTA [Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority] trolley who is wearing a skirt, dress, or the like covering these parts of her body is not a person who is "partially nude", no matter what is or is not underneath by way of underwear or other clothing,' went the court's ruling.
So whilst the judge admitted that the law should make this type of behaviour illegal, as there is no such law to stop unwitting upskirts, Robertson could not be convicted of anything: 'A woman, and in particular a woman riding on a public trolley, has a reasonable expectation of privacy in not having a stranger secretly take photographs up her skirt…but [the law] in its current form does not address it,' said court officials, according to Boston news channel WCVB.
Luckily, the powers that be are looking into what happened to get it better fixed. Senate President Therese Murray said she was 'stunned and disappointed' with the court ruling: 'We have fought too hard and too long for women's rights to take the step backward. I am in disbelief that the courts would come to this kind of decision and outraged at what it means for women's privacy and public safety.'
Let's hope the laws catch up with a digital age and people doing sneaky upskirt shots gets their comeuppance - if not at least a ban on them owning cameraphones.
Follow Sophie on Twitter @sophwilkinson
This article originally appeared on The Debrief.