Joshua Gregory Wynne jailed for stalking ex partner, secret recordings

A Qld woman feels constantly in ‘survival mode’ after a 44-day nightmare during which a stalker recorded her every move in the privacy of her bedroom and tracked her social media movements.

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A Queensland man installed cameras in his former partner’s bedroom to watch her on a livestream, along with stalking her, looking up ways ‘to catch a cheating partner’ and ignoring court orders to stay away from her.

Joshua Gregory Wynne, 33, went on a 44-day stalking period in March and April this year, about two months after their nine-year relationship came to an end.

Crown prosecutor Cameron Keast described Wynne’s stalking as “brazen”, “sophisticated”, “planned” and “controlling long after the relationship has ended”.

Judge Jeff Clarke said overall, Wynne committed 54 acts of stalking, intimidation, harassment and abuse.

Mr Keast said Wynne tracked her movements through Snapchat and took screenshots which he kept on his phone.

He said the defendant had installed cameras in her home prior to the stalking period and installed them again, this time putting one in her bedroom, during the stalking period.

“That (one in the bedroom) had a livestream feed to his phone and he made 30 recordings of the camera livestream,” Mr Keast said.

He said Wynne told the victim of the recordings and that he had heard her talking to another man on her phone.

Mr Keast said there was a pretext call at the police station between the victim and Wynne in which he told her he knew she was at the police station.

The next day, Wynne visited a website about ‘how to catch a cheating spouse’.

Police executed a search warrant at his residence the next day and he refused to give them access to his phone.

Mr Keast said Wynne went on to harass the victim that day.

He said Wynne was charged with offences afterwards, he was released on bail with conditions including a 200m exclusion zone.

Mr Keast said the defendant breached bail by repeatedly driving past her home and then called her seven times in an hour two days later.

He said Wynne again drove past her house on May 3, called her and asked her if she was at a specific appointment.

Wynne also tried hiding the domestic violence order when it arrived in the mail by hiding it in his car, harassed her to have the DVO cancelled, not to contact the police, accusing her of cheating on him and taking funds from a bank account he was not allow to.

Wynne was then charged with stalking.

Mr Keast said just over two months later, Wynne told his mother during a call while he was in prison to call the victim and “say ‘what the f*** are you doing’, like have a crack at her mum. Find out why I can’t talk to the kids.”

Judge Clarke said Wynne also questioned “why has it hurt her (the victim)?”, which showed a lack of insight into the considerable harm, including the psychological hurt, that Wynne was causing her.

“She said she feels damaged and empty,” he said.

Judge Clarke said the victim described the financial and emotional hardship of now being a single parent to three children.

He said she struggles to sleep and eat, suffered from constant headaches and constantly felt on edge, nauseous and fearful for what Wynne might do when he is released from prison, not being able to “let her guard down”.

Judge Clarke described Wynne’s behaviour as “surreptitious” and “weird”.

Mr Keast said in her victim impact statement, Wynne’s victim talked of the emotional, financial suffering and that this has forced her to move away.

“She’s had to install cameras in her home and she feels like she’s constantly on survival mode,” he said.

Defence barrister Jordan Ahlstrand said Wynne, who worked as a heavy machine operator, had started using methamphetamines recreationally in 2012 and that increased “exponentially” with the collapse of the relationship.

He said much of this offending was committed while he was drug affected.

Mr Ahlstrand said Wynne, who graduated Year 10 at Sarina State High School, instructed that this forced abstinence from meth had been “most helpful” and he was committed to continuing his rehabilitation when he is released from custody.

Wynne pleaded guilty to one count of stalking, intimidation, harassment and abuse, along with 11 breaches of a domestic violence order, three breaches of bail and one of contravening an order to provide access to electronically stored information.

The court heard he has criminal histories in Queensland and the Northern Territory.

He received a three-year prison term with 271 days presentence custody declared as time already served and parole release set for May 5, 2025.