How Leisure Centres Enable Sexual Predators – Data from Northern Ireland, 2026
- Jun 11
- 2 min read
Since our report on sex crimes in leisure centres was published in December 2025, WRN has documented seven court cases involving voyeurs using mixed-sex swimming pool changing villages to satisfy their revolting urge – they just keep happening with depressing regularity.
There are too many victims of this avoidable abuse.
And yet despite these convictions, despite the warnings, no-one will take responsibility for the changing room design that puts women and children at risk.
In an update to our 2025 report, we present new data on sexual crimes in leisure centres and swimming pools across Northern Ireland provided by the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI).
The Results
Of a combined total of 13 sexual crimes (rape, sexual assault, voyeurism) in leisure centres in Northern Ireland in 2023, seven (54%) occurred in changing areas.
All victims are female, all suspects are male.
From the information provided, we also know that:
Of the seven sexual crimes that occurred in changing areas, six (86%) took place in mixed-sex changing areas.
Crucially, these figures for Northern Ireland closely align with data from police forces in Wales, where of 16 sexual offences recorded in a changing room in 2023, 14 (88%) occurred in a mixed-sex village changing room, and also correlates with The Sunday Times report that 120 of 134 complaints (90%) of sexual assaults / voyeurism in leisure centres and public swimming pools in 2017-18 occurred in mixed-sex facilities.
Sexual crimes are not ‘one-off’ events
Northern Ireland has its fair share of swimming pool predators: a 2020 news report highlighting the police investigation of a voyeurism incident at Omagh Leisure Complex revealed that there had previously been 12 alleged incidents of sexual misconduct/voyeurism since it opened after re-development in July 2014, five of which involved a child under the age of 16.
The re-development of this leisure centre included the installation of ‘Family Friendly Village Changing Rooms’ and has been the main source of complaints about alleged sexual misconduct out of all the main leisure facilities in Tyrone.
What do the ‘authorities’ say?
There really is no need to look any further for insight or evidence that mixed-sex changing villages are a bad idea.
When asked, Sport England, Councils and architects can provide no evidence of Risk Assessments or Equality Impact Assessments; they are therefore culpable for the harms caused by inadequate changing facilities that lead to the harassment, intimidation and abuse of women and children.
We have done the work. We have the statistics. We aren’t interested in finger-pointing or hand-waving - we want action.
Women’s Rights Network Demands:
Sport England immediately withdraws all guidance promoting mixed-sex wet-side facilities as the default option for new and refurbished leisure centres.
New facilities provide single-sex changing facilities for swimming pool users.
Councils conduct a risk assessment on safety for women and girls before rubber-stamping plans for changing areas in new or refurbished leisure centres.
Crime prevention officers are consulted on all design plans, and their expertise is used to help ‘design out’ crime.
Existing changing villages must be assessed for the risk of sex crimes and robust mitigation measures be applied together with consideration of cost-effective solutions ensuring a female-only space.
