Man caught filming secret bathroom videos of woman

Xiaodong Luo was sentenced at the Waitākere District Court on December 9, 2022. Photo / Alex Burton

A man who took more than a dozen clandestine videos of a woman undressing and showering in her own home said it wasn’t for his own sexual gratification.

Instead, Xiaodong Luo said he was trying to make the woman, whom he has known for many years, “dislike” him.

The 53-year-old, an Auckland Transport Metro bus driver until his offending was discovered, was sentenced at the Waitākere District Court today.

Court documents show Luo planted his phone camera in the bathroom of the woman’s home between January and March this year, filming her on 17 separate occasions and uploading the videos onto his laptop.

The victim only found out when she saw the naked images of herself on his computer.

Police were called and Luo admitted what he did, pleading guilty in May to one representative charge of making intimate videos of another person.

Luo said he was “deeply ashamed”, speaking through his lawyer John Kovacevich. “He is utterly disappointed with himself, and has seriously embarrassed himself before the Chinese community.”

He said Luo has apologised to the victim and would have done so in person if she had agreed to see him.

“There is no excuse for his offending, and he wants to retain his honour by accepting responsibility,” Kovacevich said, explaining why the man did not seek name suppression.

Judge June Jelas said Luo denied making the recordings for his own sexual gratification and had told a probation officer he made the videos as a way to make the victim dislike him.

But whatever his motivation, she said, his actions have deeply affected his victim. The woman feels an “enormous” breach of trust and betrayal and has lingering concerns about what Luo has done with the videos and who he has shared them with.

“Her ability to trust others and feel safe in her own home is shaken,” the judge said.

Luo’s offending has also shamed his wife and seriously strained their relationship, the court heard. It cost the bus driver his job - he is no longer allowed to drive buses and now works in a back-end role for a transport company.

Judge Jelas sentenced Luo, through an interpreter, to six months of community detention with a curfew around his work hours, and ordered him to pay $500 to the victim as reparation for emotional harm.

The aggravating factors of his offending were the multiple recordings, his premeditation and planning, and what the judge called a gross abuse of trust.

Luo has no prior convictions, and is currently undergoing voluntary counselling as well as a non-violence programme.