Man charged over alleged ‘peeping Tom’ incident at Collaroy Plateau on the northern beaches

A man accused of being a ‘peeping Tom’ after peering at a 13-year-old girl through windows of a house on the northern beaches has been charged with a string of serious offences.

A MAN accused of being a ‘peeping Tom’ after allegedly peering at a 13-year-old girl through windows of a house on the northern beaches has been charged with a string of serious offences.

The arrest of the 30-year-old man — at an office on Pittwater Rd, Dee Why — came after police released security camera footage and photographs on Sunday of a man looking at the teenager in a house in Collaroy Plateau.

CCTV of the alleged ‘peeping Tom’.

An alleged ‘peeping Tom’ (centre) has been arrested and charged. Picture: NSW Police.

The man, from Collaroy Plateau, was allegedly peeping on the teenager for 17 minutes at the home in Plateau Rd about 10.30pm last Friday.

Late this afternoon the man was charged at Manly police station with two counts of peep or pry, two counts of stalk/intimidate intend fear physical harm and enter building/land with intent commit indictable offence.

He was granted conditional bail to appear at Manly Local Court on December 19.

Northern Beaches Police Area Commander Dave Darcy said the arrest of the man at 10am today, came after police received numerous calls from the public identifying the man seen in the security camera video.

Superintendent Darcy said the man, who was not known to the teenager, was arrested at his workplace and that two search warrants were executed, one at his office and one at his home.

Several items were seized for forensic examination.

He said after the footage was released “a great many people came forward” and identified the suspect.

“This is a great case of the community and police working together.”

Superintendent Darcy said police will also be investigating whether the man may have been involved in other peeping incidents around Collaroy Plateau.

“I encourage community members in that area if they’ve seen anything, to go back and talk to their families about any incident they may have seen in the past few months … and contact us.”

The security footage showed a man appearing to creep down the side of the house.

The family had installed the security cameras after the teenager saw a “silhouette’’ staring through her bedroom window about 9pm on October 4. While her parents did not report that incident to police, they were so concerned they installed CCTV cameras around their house the next week.

An alleged ‘peeping Tom’ has been arrested and charged. Picture: NSW Police.

The footage showed a man had taken off his shoes before spending the next 17 minutes peeping at the teen as she watched TV in the lounge room. Her parents were in another room.

Police said earlier this week that a man was seen on video following the girl from window to window as she moved around the house before she saw him peering at her.

The girl alerted her parents who searched the backyard but could not find the man.

She told police she was terrified and did not sleep at her home over the weekend.

Superintendent Darcy said the incident had significantly affected the girl’s way of life and she was “doing it tough”.