TORONTO

“Creepshots.” Such an apt name for images of unsuspecting women taken by a man/boy who goes by the name CreeperComforts.

As revealed yesterday by Toronto Sun reporter Maryam Shah, many Toronto women are being unwittingly photographed and ending up in “creepshots” posted online in a forum called r/creepshots.

Who is CreeperComforts? Nobody knows. This digital voyeur likes to hide behind the cloak of anonymity he denies the women whose images he posts without permission.

We have no idea what he looks like because he has never posted an image of himself. Again, unlike the young women he seems so enamored with.

It’s all very hush-hush and on the quiet, meaning CreeperComforts is hardly a household name. In fact, I wonder if he’s even a household name in his own household.

It’s also very creepy and, by any estimation, so much nameless sneaking about on Toronto’s streets and online only serves to make CreeperComforts a screaming hypocrite.

He claims the right to freedom to publish images of young girls while all the time pulling the duvet over his head and pretending he really doesn’t exist.

We do know he is very scared, the poor thing.

After the Sun’s story Wednesday the “creepshots” forum has now been placed behind a member’s only wall but that doesn’t put him beyond scrutiny.

CreeperComforts and his sleazy tendencies may well be at odds with the law according to Brian Wynn who practices entertainment law at Gardiner Roberts LLP.

He says that CreeperComforts or any of his cohorts could possibly face criminal charges if one of the photographs turns out to be of a girl under 16 and she identified herself.

“The fact they are in a public place is beside the point,” Mr Wynn said. “While it is a stretch to call it sexual harassment, one might go to criminal voyeurism or harassment under the Criminal Code.

“It is still very much a grey area. This is an example of where the criminal law has not quite caught up with society.”

At this stage it would be encouraging to think that CreeperComforts is an artist in the classical sense of the word. Perhaps a Renaissance man who sees himself as a lover of the female form in the same league as Vermeer, Dali, Rubens or Whistler.

Maybe he is readying to sculpt Venus de Milo 2.0 in a very post modern sort of way.

As if.

Just look at the titles of the images of young Toronto women CreeperComforts’ work keep online company with.

“Who likes slender athletic gingers?” is one. Then there is “Who likes a MILF in a skirt?”

These are closely followed by such charming monikers as “TieDied Short Shorts”, “Sweet as Honey” and “Promotional Eye Candy”.

Classy it ain’t.

If Creepshots is wondering just where this sneaky business might all end up, I can help. He need look no further than across the border into the US.

A substitute teacher in Coweta County, Ga., has been accused of taking pictures of students without their permission and posting them.

Georgia authorities are investigating after students at East Coweta High said their pictures ended up on the “Creepshot” web page.

Some of the pictures were reported as “relatively innocent,” but the captions and context proved so disturbing to some parents that authorities were called in.

The teacher has now left the school system.

Maybe it’s time for Toronto’s own CreeperComforts to simply leave the building. Or his mum and dad’s basement.

Or both.