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Two leading photographic agencies are reviewing their content after a Byline Times investigation found illegal ‘upskirt’ images of women were on sale to the press five years after taking such images became a sexual offence in the UK.
The development comes after actor-turned-political-activist Laurence Fox re-posted an ‘upskirting’ photo of broadcaster Narinder Kaur on X, formerly Twitter, during a row about their political views last month.
Byline Times found Alamy, Camera Press, and London-based Capital Images charged between £35 and £2,600 for the right to reproduce the images which are outlawed both under anti-voyeurism and public decency legislation.
PA, the UK’s gold-standard national photo agency, advertises the shots for sale via links to Alamy, which it acquired in 2020. Some photographs are zoomed in to focus on the groin area and underwear of female celebrities and members of the public.
In 2018, former Good Morning host, Holly Willoughby spoke out and shared photos of herself and fellow female celebrities including Abbey Clancy, Louise Redknapp, and Rita Ora attempting to get into their cars at the Brit Awards while “cameras were held low to get a photo up our skirts”.
PA and Alamy thanked Byline Times for bringing the matter to their attention and committed to removing them from their websites.
A PA spokesman said: “A PA journalist was part of the campaign for upskirting laws, so this is a cause we care about.
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“These pictures were in an archive we purchased as part of a larger collection some years ago, and we are grateful to have the existence of images such as this brought to our attention.
“We regularly sweep for nudity and offensive terms but did not know this material was available. As a result, we are carrying out a thorough investigation and will of course remove any offensive images from this inherited archive from display or sale as soon as we can.”
A spokesman for Alamy said the company was “an open platform” which saw 150,000 images being submitted each day from around the world, meaning it was “not possible” to monitor each incoming picture, and that it relied on third-party contributors adhering to its rules and regulations.
But the spokesman added the company takes “this issue extremely seriously and are grateful to have the existence of these images brought to our attention”.
“We routinely manually sweep the collection for inappropriate material that contravenes our terms but there are some that can slip the net – the examples you have given clearly fall within those that should be removed and we thank Byline Times for bringing these to our attention.”
The spokesperson said the images “and others” will be removed “as soon as possible from our platform”.
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Capital Images, from whose online archive the image of Ms Kaur was taken and posted by Mr Fox, did not reply to repeated requests for comment. Three photographs flagged by this newspaper as being potentially illegal appear to have been removed from its site following our inquiry, but other similar images remain for sale.
Camera Press did not respond to a request for comment, either, but also appeared to have removed ‘upskirt’ images from its website.
Dr Bethany Usher of Newcastle University, who has researched the culture of attack journalism and the sexual humiliation of female public figures, said: “Parts of the Press still represent women, and particularly female celebrities, through lenses of sexual objectification.
“Images that reduce women to little more than their body parts are still splashed across tabloid news websites, with audience members often commenting beneath or sharing on social media.
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“The fact that it still exists in this way [in 2024] is a sad indictment of how little in some ways we’ve moved on.
“If we are to tackle trolling that uses such material, we need to start with finally addressing the culture of attack in Press codes of conduct, as often it is the Press that sets the tone and provides the fodder for harassment of this kind.”
On May 2 the Met Police announced it was investigating Fox for re-posting the image of Ms Kaur. The shot appears to show the 51-year-old’s genitalia and was taken without her consent as she got out of a car in 2009.
A friend of Ms Kaur told the Mirror: “Narinder has always been vocal about issues she cares about and while she’s endured horrendous backlash before, she never expected to become the target of such vicious attacks.”
While the image of Ms Kaur was removed from the Capital Images website, many similar photos remained available to purchase on the company’s site – as well as on that of Alamy, Camera Press, and advertised for sale on PA – easily accessible by searching terms describing women’s body parts and clothing.
They include pictures of A-list popstars, actresses, socialites and TV presenters taken without their consent as they get in and out of vehicles before and after events, including some when the women are visibly intoxicated.
Others feature female members of the general public, taken at events such as horse racing seemingly without their consent and often when they, too, appear intoxicated.
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While there is no suggestion Reclaim Party leader Fox, 45, has committed an offence, the Voyeurism (Offences) Act 2019 applies to anyone operating equipment or recording an image under another person’s clothing without a reasonable belief of their consent, to view their genitals or buttocks.
It is a criminal offence where the purpose is to obtain sexual gratification or to cause humiliation, distress or alarm and the maximum penalty is two years jail.
However, prior to 2019, when ‘upskirting’ became a specific offence, there had been successful prosecutions for this under the Outraging Public Decency (OPD) offence.
