A Gold Coast man has narrowly escaped jail after he secretly filmed more than a hundred nude videos of his ex-partner’s teenage kids and of guests at their home.
The 41-year-old, who cannot be named to protect the identity of the minors, filmed the videos over three years after he hid a camera in a shower vent and also filmed under the bathroom door gap and through a window.
A court heard this week the man groped his ex’s daughter when she was 17-years-old and went on to make dozens of videos of her by covertly filming her groin area when she sat at a table in a nightie and no underwear, reported The Gold Coast Bulletin.
The man’s offending was revealed when his ex-partner, the mother of his young child, found a hidden gallery on his phone and contacted police.
Officers then searched the house and found the concealed camera and a cable running through the roof to his computer in the couple’s bedroom.
The man had nearly 70 videos of the 17-year-old girl in the shower, more than 30 of her in her nightie, one of his ex’s 17-year-old son and his 16-year-old girlfriend in the shower, and another five of the girl on her own.
In an emotional victim impact statement read to Southport Magistrates Court, the ex-partner said the ‘sense of betrayal we feel is profound’.
‘(His) actions were not a mistake or a momentary lapse in judgment … he was in complete control and had the ability to change his predatory behaviour at any point,’ she said.
A Gold Coast man has been sentenced in Southport Magistrates Court to nine months jail suspended after he covertly filmed his ex’s teenage children in the shower
The 41-year-old, who cannot be named to protect the identity of the minors, filmed the videos over three years after he hid a camera in a shower vent and also filmed under the bathroom door gap and through a window
The woman said the ex had ‘manipulated and groomed’ her and her children, and she felt shame for failing to protect them.
‘We constantly feel as though we are being watched, which makes us feel unsafe and anxious in our own home,’ she said.
The man pleaded guilty to one count of sexual assault and five of observations or recordings in breach of privacy.
The man’s defence lawyer claimed his client had witnessed and been a victim of abuse as a child and that he was seeing a psychologist who said he had a ‘positive prognosis’ for rehabilitation.
Magistrate Mark Whitbread said the man’s offending was ‘abhorrent’ and that it was shameful his ex ‘blames herself’.
But he also said the steps the man had taken to rehabilitate since he was exposed should be considered.
He sentenced the man to nine months jail suspended for four years and probation for three years.
Police have also issued an AVO on behalf of the woman and her children.
