Central Coast man jailed for hiding GoPro camera in bathroom to film stepdaughter

A man caught hiding a GoPro camera in his stepdaughter’s shower said it was an “appalling abhorration”. But a magistrate described it as “child sex exploitation” and jailed him.

A man hid a GoPro camera in the bathroom to film his stepdaughter having a shower. (File picture)

A man who hid a GoPro camera in his stepdaughter’s shower to see how much she had “grown” has been jailed for a minimum of 15 months.

The man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, faced Wyong Local Court on Wednesday where his ex-partner read out a victim impact statement on behalf of her daughter.

An agreed set of facts states the man, aged in his 30s, had been stepdad to the young girl for about eight years when he had a conversation with his then partner about the girl reaching puberty and “growing up”.

One afternoon in February 2023 when the girl was getting ready to have a shower “the accused set up a GoPro camera in the bathroom on the edge of the bath”, the facts state.

The man hid the camera under a bath toy and set the camera to record before leaving.

The man, aged in his 30s, leaving Wyong Local Court last month after pleading guilty to filming his stepdaughter in the shower. Picture: NewsLocal

The girl picked up the bath toy and noticed the camera underneath with the red blinking light in the corner so she turned it the other way, the facts state.

But the victim didn’t disclose to her mum what happened until months later in November 2023, saying she didn’t tell her sooner because she didn’t want the offender to get in trouble or the family to break up.

The man was sentenced to a minimum 15 months jail. (File image)

He was arrested mid last year and charged with one count of producing child abuse material to which he pleaded guilty.

His Legal Aid solicitor said the man described it as a “one-off” to see for himself how much the girl had grown and admitted it was an “appalling abhorration”.

But Deputy Chief Magistrate Sharon Freund said it was “a huge abuse of trust”.

“Children are entitled to feel safe in the home where they live,” Ms Freund said.

“You were her stepdad, she saw you as her dad.

“Really paramount is general deterrence, this is a child sex exploitation offence.”

Ms Freund said the man would have known the second he watched the footage that he “had been caught” because the girl picked up the camera and turned it away.

He told police he deleted it straight away but Ms Freund said no one would ever really know what happened to the footage because there was no forensic examination of the camera.

The court heard the man had suffered a bad accident in 2016 which led to him to “self medicate” and develop a problem with alcohol and cannabis, which would have impacted his decision making at the time.

Ms Freund sentenced him to two years jail with a non-parole period of 15 months.