Southern Highlands podophile charged with sex acts on girlfriend’s feet

A court has heard disturbing details about a relationship coming to an end after a woman found videos of her long-term boyfriend pleasuring himself with her feet as she laid in bed asleep.

The man leaving Port Kembla Local Court on Tuesday. Picture: Dylan Arvela

A Southern Highlands man with a penchant for feet allegedly recorded himself rubbing his penis in between his partner’s toes while she slept, court documents state.

The man, who cannot be identified as to protect the woman’s identity, appeared in Port Kembla Local Court on Tuesday about three months after being charged with two counts of carrying out a sexual act on another without consent.

Documents tendered in court state the man, who is in his 20s, had been in a relationship with the woman for a few years and they lived together in a Southern Highlands town.

In August, the woman was snooping through the man’s phone when she found Russian social media app VK and, upon further inspection of the app, she found foot fetish pornography.

Documents state the woman also found a message from the accused to an unknown person which read: “I want you to be the first person I try bondage with.”

The man is diagnosed with diagnosed general anxiety, depression and fetishistic disorder. Picture: Dylan Arvela

About a week later the woman began looking through the man’s phone once more and found 99 videos of feet in his photo gallery app including a recording of women’s feet at an unknown pool.

The documents state 20 of the videos were of the woman’s feet including two which are linked to the charges.

Those two videos took place while the couple were on holiday and occurred while the woman was asleep.

The documents state the first video involved the man fondling his penis between the woman’s toes while the second, two days later, was of him licking between her toes and sucking the woman’s big toe.

The woman, previously unaware of the videos, downloaded them onto her computer before reporting the man to police who arrested him at a Barrack Heights address in the Illawarra.

In court, the man’s solicitor Cameron Meaney lodged a mental health application citing his client’s diagnosed general anxiety, depression and a fetishistic disorder.

The court heard the couple were no longer in a relationship.

Mr Meaney acknowledged there was a “breach of trust” by the man and noted the relationship was now over with an apprehended domestic violence order in place to protect the woman.

The court heard the man had a session with a psychologist and was undertaking counselling with the treatment scheduled out for 12 months.

Mr Meaney also submitted his client lacked a criminal record and was “unlikely” to reoffend.

Police prosecutor Zane Barron said he was “not an expert in the field”, but pondered if there was a difference between general anxiety and the anxiety anyone else would have.

Mr Barron said the charges carried a maximum of 18 months’ jail and the case against the man was “strong”.

Magistrate Michael Ong told the court he was concerned about the lack of specific treatment in place for the man’s fetishistic disorder and gave Mr Meaney the opportunity to adjourn to seek an updated treatment plan.

The case will return to court in December.

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