Man sentenced for secretly filming in bathroom

Photo / Thinkstock

A Wellington man who secretly filmed up to 20 people using his bathroom has been sentenced today to home detention and community work.

The man, who has interim name suppression, had hidden a camera in a wall socket and hooked it up to a computer in his office.

His crime was discovered when one of the females he was living with found a void in the wall full of labelled dvds.

The man appeared before Judge Peter Hobbs in Wellington District Court this morning where he was sentenced to six months' home detention, 200 hours' community work and ordered to pay $30,000 in reparation.

The court was told how the man was living with his wife in Johnsonville and then shortly before her two daughters moved in with them he installed a hidden digital camera, pointing it at the shower.

It was then hooked up to his office where he could record the footage.

He told his step-daughters that the plug was blown and not to touch it.

But in January one of his victims discovered a void in the wall as she was cleaning.

Inside the void was up to 40 dvds with labels with women's names on them.

At least three dvds contained footage from the bathroom, and at least 17 victims were identified in the videos using the bathroom, including both step-daughters and his wife.

The other friends, family and acquaintances identities remained unknown.

Earlier this year the man pleaded guilty to three charges of making an intimate visual recording and one charge of possessing an intimate visual recording.

In sentencing the man Judge Hobbs said the offending occurred over an extended period of time.

It had clearly had a significant affect on his victims.

"They attest to the real and difficult affect your offending has had on them and that's not surprising. They [victim impact statements] make difficult reading."

Judge Hobbs said the man's early guilty plea, his previously clean record, and his significant voluntary steps to dealing with some of the issues which led to his offending meant his sentence could be transferred to home detention.

He was assessed at a low risk of reoffending, however a psychiatrist's report assessed him as a definite possibility of committing suicide.

He was sentenced to six months' home detention and 200 hours' community work and ordered to pay $10,000 to each of his three victims.

The man was also ordered to attend a psychiatric assessment, not to possess a computer, not to associate with people under 16 years, and not to associate with his victims.

A protection order to stop him seeing his step-daughters was also issued.