Hertsmere MP James Clappison will be asking for a tightening up of indecency laws following a request from Borehamwood sixth-formers who may have been secretly filmed undressing by a peeping tom.

Mr Clappison pledged this week to put forward an amendment to the Crime and Disorder Bill which is currently at the committee stage before it is debated by MPs.

The MP has stepped in after senior pupils at Hawksmoor School in Cowley Hill pleaded for the law to change.

He is hoping to arrange a meeting with some of the school's pupils to discuss their case.

Girls at the school were appalled to learn that they may have been captured on film by a hidden miniature camera.

Watford labourer Terence Pittman, 34, broke into the school and secretly installed video equipment in the girls' changing room.

He has pleaded guilty to a string of burglaries and arsons carried out at six schools in Hertfordshire, including Hawksmoor, between February 1993 and April of last year.

He is currently awaiting sentencing.

The voyeur's activities were pieced together following the discovery at Hawksmoor by a vigilant caretaker who spotted cables and the camera.

Pupils, teachers and parents have been outraged that Pittman has not been charged with any indecency offences.

But Hertfordshire police which led the investigation said they cannot bring such charges against him because the images of people undressing are not classified by law as indecent.

Mr Clappison, a Conservative member of the Crime and Disorder Bill committee, said this week: "I speak for the opposition for this bill and I will be putting down an amendment which may help in cases such as these.

"It's an extension of the law without reference to any one case, but I cannot guarantee that it will be accepted.

"It follows concerns of pupils and parents of those who may have been filmed in the changing room.

"It is an offence to take `indecent' photographs of children under 16, but there is nothing for intent to take such photographs."

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