David Christison is a Croydon council candidate  Pic: M Tiedemann

A Labour Party secretary and former Croydon Council candidate, who secretly recorded men urinating 30 times in two years, has been suspended.

David Christison, ward secretary for West Thornton who stood for Labour in Waddon in 2010, appeared at Croydon Magistrates’ Court last Thursday and pleaded guilty to two counts of observing a person doing a private act.

The 44-year-old, of Dunheved Road South, Thornton Heath, was charged with filming men going to the toilet on 30 occasions in Centrale shopping centre between April 2011 and March 2013.

National party members wrote to Christison to inform him of the suspension of both his membership and secretary position. The suspension will remain in place while a disciplinary panel investigates and decides whether to take further action, which could include expulsion from the party.

Tony Newman, leader of Croydon Labour, said he was “shocked and disappointed” at the former candidate’s actions. He added: “It is very sad and I am acutely aware that there are also victims to his crime.”

Police were called to the shopping centre in April 28 last year, after a member of the public informed the shopping centre’s security staff about a man who was behaving strangely with his phone.

After the phone’s inspection, a video of a man urinating was found, which prosecution ruled out to have been shot covertly, because it was filmed from urinal level. Subsequently, a search of Christison’s house revealed a number of laptops with 29 other videos of similar nature, dating back from April 2, 2011.

The suspended Labour Party member will return to Croydon Magistrates’ Court on March 20 for sentencing.