UK man gets 2 and half years of imprisonment for obscene phone calls

Bogus clothing researcher who called women and harassed them with questions about their underwear was jailed for 2 and 1/2 years Friday.

Photo: UK man gets 2 and half years of imprisonment for obscene phone calls

Paul Kavanagh, 40, admitted to making some 15,000 calls over a 12-year period, beginning with innocuous questions about socks and cardigans before asking his victims about their underwear and making lewd suggestions.

Judge Peter Testar said Kavanagh had been "making these calls for the purposes of sexual gratification and, I must say to my mind, for the purposes of cruelty."

Kavanagh used unregistered pay-as-you go phones, but he was caught after targeting female staff at the gym across from his home, making comments about their clothes and the way they wore their hair.

Detectives caught Kavanagh on film speaking into the phone as he leaned over the balcony of the West London apartment he shared with his mother at the same time as the calls were being made to the gym across the way.