Peeping Tom and children’s app creator Luke Spencer Tregloan to serve 25-month sentence on home detention

A children’s app creator turned Peeping Tom, who filmed seven neighbours in their most intimate moments, will serve his sentence at home rather than in prison.

For three years, Luke Spencer Tregloan used his evening jog to satisfy his sexual appetite by secretly and indecently filming his neighbours in their most vulnerable moments.

On Thursday, the District Court spared the former children’s app developer a prison term for his crimes – ordering instead he be detained in his home until November 2023.

In sentencing, Judge Joana Fuller said Tregloan’s actions were a gross breach and violation of the sanctity of people’s homes and their right to privacy.

However, she noted he had stopped that offending – and ceased his downloading of child abuse material – voluntarily before being caught, sparking hope for rehabilitation.

“From now, all of 2022 and almost all of 2023, you will be subject to home detention orders,” she said.

“Including the time you have spent on bail, you will end up with over 3½ years on home detention.

“You should take every advantage of that time to continue to engage in therapy to identify how this happened and make sure it never happens again.”

Luke Spencer Tregloan designed an app for kids, called Hip Hop Kangaroo & Friends, prior to his arrest. Picture: Mike Burton

Tregloan, 46, of Highgate, pleaded guilty to possessing child exploitation material on his phone and in files linked to a cloud storage service.

He also pleaded guilty to indecently filming seven people on 10 different occasions.

Those films, spanning 2017 to 2020, depicted women in vulnerable and private situations being filmed without their knowledge.

Prior to his arrest, Tregloan was known for co-creating a smartphone app showing native animal puppet characters singing educational songs for children.

In sentencing on Thursday, Judge Fuller said psychological reports showed the failure of that app, and the resulting stress, sparked Tregloan’s offending.

Those reports, she said, also showed Tregloan was not a pedophile, because the amount and nature of the abuse material he downloaded did not support such a diagnosis.

Tregloan, the court heard, posed as a woman online while engaging with child abuse material. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Kelly Barnes

Judge Fuller said Tregloan’s victims were “shocked and scared” to learn they had been filmed and many no longer felt safe and secure in their homes.

However, the fact he had not viewed any of the material for many months and never shared it online made his offending less serious than other cases before the courts.

She said Tregloan had also actively sought therapy for his issues and was “genuinely remorseful”.

“You stopped all offending of your own accord … at least eight months before your arrest,” she said.

“This is an unusual and atypical, but not unique, aspect of your offending.”

She detained him for 16 months over the abuse material and for 18 months over the indecent filming, with a nine-month non-parole period for that second set of offending.