Andrew Weinzettel sentenced for filming women undressing without consent
Physiotherapist Andrew Weinzettel filmed a teenager undressing in a bathroom at his home and another woman at a western Sydney physiotherapy clinic.
Liverpool
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A physiotherapist who used a hidden camera to film women undressing for sexual gratification has avoided a jail term and will instead serve his sentence within the community.
With head bowed, Andrew Weinzettel, 53, appeared before Magistrate Fiona McCarron today as she handed down her sentence in Liverpool Local Court.
Weinzettel had previously pleaded guilty to seven counts of filming a person’s private parts without consent after a concealed camera was found in the bathroom of a western Sydney physiotherapy clinic, which cannot be named for legal reasons, in November 2018.
The Cecil Hills man turned himself in to police the day after it was discovered.
Investigators seized memory cards, which contained footage dating back three years earlier of an unknown woman undressing in the bathroom of the clinic, as well as video of another female, at the time aged 16 to 17, undressing in bathrooms at Weinzettel’s home.
His barrister Bart Vasic made submissions last week, saying Weinzettel had a “vast bank of good character to call upon” and felt “shame, guilt and sorrow” for the people he had hurt.
“The consequences of his own offending have been significant,” Mr Vasic said at the time.
The court heard his wife was “struggling” with the consequences of his actions and his “image as a father” to their three daughters was “gone”.
In sentencing, Magistrate McCarron said the offences carried a maximum term of two years’ full-time imprisonment.
She said the offences showed evidence of “forethought and planning” and constituted “a significant breach of trust”, with his victims “violated in the most insidious of ways”.
“There is a devious and deceptive element to the crime,” she said.
However, having considered his remorse, early plea, mental health issues — namely depression — and lack of criminal history, Magistrate McCarron sentenced Weinzettel to an aggregate term of 30 months’ imprisonment served by way of an intensive correction order.
She said Weinzettel was to continue seeing his treating psychologist for as long as was deemed appropriate.
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