Thomas Arpad Meyer: Upskirt Woolloomooloo IT worker sentenced
An IT project manager travelled around Sydney taking hundreds of covert ‘upskirt’ photos of women’s bottoms to satisfy his fetish. He had previously been jailed for having 4000 images of dead and mutilated women and children on his laptop.
Central Sydney
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A lawyer has argued that the only person “offended” by a man’s treasure trove of secret photos taken of women and teenagers across Sydney was the project manager who found the images on his employee’s work computer.
A lawyer has argued that the only person “offended” by a man’s treasure trove of secret photos taken of women and teenagers across Sydney was the project manager who found the images on his employee’s work computer.
Thomas Arpad Meyer, 61, was convicted of offensive behaviour in public for taking pictures of teenagers’ behinds without their knowledge as they walked up stairs and travelled on escalators.
The women have never been alerted to the images.
The IT worker’s boss found about 3200 pictures on his laptop, which police facts state included images of girls wearing school uniforms in public places.
Meyer, from Woolloomooloo, was fired from his job at construction company Waco Kwikform the next day.
He admitted to police at the time that his actions were “not cool”, according to police facts, after his employee handed over a USB of the images and work laptop to police.
Meyer previously spent more than two years in a New Zealand prison for travelling overseas with 4000 images of dead and mutilated women and children on his laptop, which the prosecution said “aggravated” this crime.
He has also been jailed in Victoria for child abuse material offences, which had the same effect according to the prosecution.
He pleaded guilty to the current offensive behaviour offence at an early date, as well as to a charge of not complying with a child protection order which requires him to alert police to a change of address.
“Some were taken from down low, facing in a typical ‘up skirt’ style,” the facts state.
“Some clearly teenage girls are followed and photographed as they walk around the Bondi Junction Westfield area”.
The court documents describe the hundreds of images taken in Redfern, Bondi Junction and Rhodes between September and November 2019 as “offensive, creepy and otherwise sexual in nature”.
But Deputy Chief Magistrate Jane Motley said she did not accept the prosecution case that the “offensive behaviour” charge was at the highest end of the scale.
She said the police facts indicate that he took clandestine photos of children and teenagers but the only photos she could see depicted the “body shapes” of unknown women.
Magistrate Motley said he must continue to seek treatment for his “fetishistic disorder”, which seemed to explain the hundreds of photographs he had taken of women’s behinds, and described him otherwise as an “intelligent man” and a “high functioning member of the community”.
She said the images taken of young women from behind was “completely consistent” with his “diagnosed disorder”.
For the “more serious” charge of failing to comply with reporting obligations, Meyer was placed on an 18 month Community Corrections Order.
For the offensive behaviour charge, Meyer will be subjected to a 12 month Community Corrections Order.