Reynolds Mandisi Dube denies taking photos of young NT teenagers without their consent was stalking

A man who shared images of Darwin school girls and young women online has denied stalking charges, telling police “taking pictures is what I do … there’s a lot of photos on my phone”.

Alleged stalker Reynolds Mandisi Dube leaves Darwin Local Court on Tuesday February 11, 2025. Picture: Pema Tamang Pakhrin

A man who shared images of Darwin school girls and young women online has denied stalking charges, claiming he did not intend to scare anyone with his covert photography.

Reynolds Mandisi Dube was charged with stalking seven different young women around Darwin and Palmerston between February and May 2024.

The 31-year-old has pleaded not guilty to all of the allegations and appeared before Judge Julie Franz on Tuesday.

Mr Dube has not denied taking photos of the school-aged girls and young women in public without their consent and posting them to Facebook, but denied this was intended to cause them fear.

In a recorded interview police asked Mr Dube why he had so many photos of school-aged girls on his profile — many captioned with love heart emojis.

“These kids, they just come up to me and are like ‘I want to be in the picture with you’,” Mr Dube said.

“They come up to me. And this happens everywhere I go.

“What am I supposed to do? I want nothing to do with them, they’re in school, they’re young kids but they’re coming to me.”

Alleged stalker Reynolds Mandisi Dube leaves Darwin Local Court on Tuesday February 11, 2025. Picture: Pema Tamang Pakhrin

When police questioned him about a photo of a 14-year-old girl on the bus, Mr Dube claimed it was actually a photo of him by pointing to his foot in the corner of the frame.

“I take pictures of myself (and) there’s always people in the background,” he said.

“Taking pictures is what I do … there’s a lot of photos on my phone. Sometimes I post them, sometimes I don’t.”

His defence lawyer Laurence Waugh said while his client did take the photos, it was never intended to cause fear for the young women.

Alleged stalker Reynolds Mandisi Dube leaves Darwin Local Court on Tuesday February 11, 2025. Picture: Pema Tamang Pakhrin

But Prosecutor Lachlan Macdonald said a reasonable person should have known his actions towards the teenagers were not a case of being “overly friendly”.

Mr Macdonald said even in the least serious instance of alleged stalking, the young woman was left “fearing for her safety”.

He alleged Mr Dube took five photos of an 18-year-old woman while she was working, posting the images online.

“When she was leaving work for the day, he was sitting in front of the store and addressed her by name,” Mr Macdonald said.

It was also alleged that for six weeks Mr Dube stalked two school-aged twins, who happened to take the same bus route to and from school.

Mr Franz adjourned the hearing until February 18 for her decision.

Originally published as Reynolds Mandisi Dube denies taking photos of young NT teenagers without their consent was stalking