A Gold Coast man has narrowly escaped jail after secretly making more than 100 naked videos of his ex-partner’s teenage children and guests at their home.
The 41-year-old, whose name cannot be released to protect the identities of the minors, filmed the videos over three years after hiding a camera in a shower vent and also filming under a crack in the bathroom door and through a window.
A court heard this week that the man groped his ex-wife’s daughter when she was 17 and then made dozens of videos of her by secretly filming her groin area as she sat at a table in a nightgown and without underwear, the court was told. The Gold Coast Bulletin.
The man’s crimes came to light when his ex-partner, the mother of his young child, found a hidden gallery on his phone and called police.
Officers then searched the home and found the hidden camera and a cable running through the roof to the 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 nightgown, one of his ex’s 17-year-old son and his 16-year-old girlfriend in the shower, and another five of the girl alone.
In an emotional victim impact statement read out at Southport Crown Court, the ex-partner said “the sense of betrayal we feel is profound”.
“(His) actions were not a mistake or a moment of lapse of judgment … he was in complete control and could change his predatory behavior at any time,” she said.
A Gold Coast man has been given a nine-month suspended jail sentence at Southport District Court after secretly filming 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 hiding a camera in a shower vent and also filming under a crack in the bathroom door and through a window.
The woman said her ex had “manipulated and manipulated” her and her children and that she felt ashamed for not protecting them.
“We constantly feel like we are being watched, which makes us feel unsafe and anxious in our own homes,” she said.
The man pleaded guilty to one count of sexual abuse and five counts of surveillance or recording that violates privacy.
The man’s lawyer claimed his client witnessed and was a victim of abuse as a child and saw a psychologist who said he had a “positive prognosis” for rehabilitation.
Magistrate Mark Whitbread said the man’s offences were “abhorrent” and it was outrageous that his ex “blamed himself”.
But he also said the steps the man had taken to rehabilitate after being exposed should be taken into consideration.
He sentenced the man to nine months in prison, suspended for four years and a probation period of three years.
The police also issued an AVO on behalf of the woman and her children.