A MAN charged with peeping into a poolside family changing cubicle was branded a 'paedophile' by a furious father who dashed to confront him, a trial has heard.

Stuart Miller is said to have used a towel draped from a bench as cover to spy on the man, his pregnant partner and a baby at the Waterfront Leisure Centre.

Giving evidence, dad Darren Weir, 25 — a serving soldier — said he 'knew Miller was peeking',

He told the court: "It was blatant right in front of me.

"I've never been as angry in my life."

Miller, 32, lay on the floor of a neighbouring cubicle and looked in as the woman was in a state of undress after loitering to see where the family went, Greenock Sheriff Court was told.

He is also accused of earlier of staring at the woman for several minutes as she earlier struggled to retrieve shampoo from densely packed bags in a locker.

Mr Weir — who was in Inverclyde on holiday with his family — said: "The towel was wobbling about and the corner of it was getting pulled up, and then I saw the face of the man.

"I said to Siobhan, 'Did you see that?' and she said she had.

"I jumped up on my bench and I looked over.

"The man was lying on his side on the ground.

"I ran around to where he was and I was aggressively trying to open his cubicle door.

"A lifeguard had to come and calm me down.

"I was shouting and swearing, which I probably shouldn't have done, but I saw red.

"I shouted 'paedophile!' at the top of my voice at one point — I was that angry."

Defence lawyer Gerry Keenan suggested that Miller had been trying to retrieve a dropped locker key from a separate adjacent cubicle.

Mr Weir responded: "No. He knew himself he was caught."

Mr Keenan put it to him that his client was on his knees and was not lying on the floor at all, and that his towel was on the ground.

The solicitor asked: "Is it not the case that you have misunderstood all of this and he was trying to retrieve a key he'd dropped?"

Mr Weir replied: "No, I saw what I saw and I'm not daft."

Miss Seils told the court that she saw Miller make his way to upstairs sauna rooms after she rejoined her family at the showers from the locker area.

She said: "I was really uncomfortable and I told Darren that I was."

Miss Seils added: "We went back to the locker to get our clothes for the changing room and that's when I saw the man again.

"He was standing in the aisle as we got our clothes and looked for which room we went into.

"He got into the room directly behind ours."

Miss Seils said: "I started getting undressed and then Darren noticed the towel move.

"He bounced up and looked over and I grabbed my towel and covered up.

"The man wasn't wet because he'd only been up to the sauna for five minutes, so it was strange he had a towel in the changing room."

Mr Miller, of Cathy Allan Place in Greenock, denies conducting himself in a disorderly manner, loitering, staring at Miss Seils, placing her in a state of fear and alarm, entering a cubicle adjacent to her, Mr Weir and an infant, lying on the floor, and repeatedly looking into their cubicle and committing a breach of the peace.

The trial, before Sheriff Derek Hamilton, is due to continue on December 10.