AN ALLOA man who secretly filmed women and girls in Wee County supermarkets more than 50 times has been jailed for two years.

Ryan Fox, 32, prowled around Alloa's Asda, Tesco and Aldi stores recording unsuspecting females on his phone between January 19 and March 16 this year.

He also "upskirted" one woman on March 14, and filmed a nine-year-old girl as she stood alone in the toy section of Asda later the same day.

The terrified youngster – who is the only victim prosecutors could identify – spotted what he was doing, and ran to tell her mum.

Although he managed to elude security staff on that occasion, Fox returned to the shop two days later and was recognised by one employee.

He appeared to be recording a child once again, and police were called and arrested him in the store.

Officers later discovered he was in possession of a pair of scissors at the time.

Fox later pleaded guilty to breaching the peace by making the secret recordings and one sexual offence for the upskirting incident while at Stirling Sheriff Court on November 4.

And despite maintaining he had a valid excuse for being in possession of the scissors in public on March 16 – namely that he was returning them to his mum - a jury found him guilty of that charge after trial on November 8.

Following the trial, it was revealed by prosecutor Cheryl Clarke that Fox had a previous conviction from the English courts for trying to arrange someone's murder.

She said: "He has two previous convictions: one from 2006 at Sheffield Crown Court for wounding with intent to do grievous bodily harm, then another from 2007 for solicitation to murder from the same court.

"My understanding is he has a form of lifelong restriction from these convictions and he's on life licence for them."

Defence agent Virgil Crawford told Stirling Sheriff Court on December 11 that his client would be imprisoned in England after completing any sentence in Scotland because of the life licence conditions.

In mitigation, the solicitor then asked Sheriff Wylie Robertson to consider a number of factors before passing any sentence.

These included the fact that Fox had been in custody since March 18, and that he was a Christian who "attends church regularly".

Mr Crawford also mentioned Fox had found his recent time in custody "horrendous" and has been placed under protection from other inmates.

And he revealed that, if possible, Fox wanted to return to his address at Hillside Terrace after any period in custody.

Sheriff Robertson said the only appropriate sentence would be a custodial one because of the seriousness of the charges.

He then handed Fox a five-year extended sentence, two years of which will be spent in custody, backdated to when he was first remanded.

Fox's name will also remain on the sex offenders register for an indefinite period.

The Advertiser requested an image of Ryan Fox from Police Scotland, but the organisation could not provide one.