Police are appealing for help to find a pervert seen filming young girls getting undressed in the Olympiad’s changing rooms.

The voyeur held a mobile phone under the changing room door of the Chippenham leisure centre, before making off with underwear belonging to two schoolgirls.

The girls targeted were aged 12 and 13.

Police have released CCTV images of a man they would like to speak to in connection with the incident, which happened on Thursday, June 19, between 7.25pm and 7.50pm.

Sergeant Phil Connor, of the Chippenham neighbourhood policing team, said: “An unknown male, aged about 30 to 40, was seen by two females putting his hand under a door of the communal changing room.

“We are keen to speak to the man pictured so we can eliminate him from our inquiries.

“There have been several incidents of this nature and we have been working in partnership with the anti-social behaviour reduction team and the management of the Olympiad. We are confident our partners will do everything they can to improve security.

“We don’t know if there are other victims and would like anyone else who thinks they have been targeted while changing to come forward. We will deal with all reports sensitively.”

Nick Moran, area manager for Places for People Leisure, which manages the Olympiad, said: “It is a by-product of the mobile phone era and wasn’t an issue when the Olympiad was built 23 years ago.

"It is important to point out that everybody who attends the Olympiad is captured on CCTV.”

The Olympiad installed £20,000 worth of CCTV equipment ten years ago after a man was caught peeping at two nine-year-old girls.

There have been five similar incidents reported to police in the past two years, with victims also including women and young boys. In January last year signs were put up in the changing rooms forbidding the use of mobile phones.

Mr Moran said: “There have been incidents like this relating to children playing pranks, but if there is someone with less savoury motives then we need to manage the situation.

"We are working closely with the police and increasing patrols in the changing rooms, though we do rely on the public to draw our attention to things as we can’t have a presence there 100 per cent of the time.

“It would be impractical to put in turnstiles; there isn’t the space and we have a lot of users with buggies. That is maybe something to consider when we get the community campus.”

Anyone who recognises the man on CCTV images in the purple T-shirt is asked to call PC Susan Seager at Wiltshire Police on 101, or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.