Brendan Goodacre pleads guilty to upskirting women

A Torquay father who upskirted a woman after following her and her toddler daughter into a store also filmed a 13-year-old girl getting changed in a clothes shop.

Brendan Goodacre in 2013. File picture

A Torquay father who upskirted a woman after following her and her toddler daughter into a store also filmed a 13-year-old girl getting changed in a clothes shop.

Brendan Goodacre, 59, pleaded guilty in the Geelong Magistrates Court on Thursday to four charges of upskirting.

The court heard Goodacre also filmed a 56-year-old woman and another unknown woman.

Police prosecutor Senior Constable Denise Frame told the court Goodacre filmed the teen girl, who was in her bra and underwear, at Torquay’s Cotton On store on November 25, 2022.

Constable Frame told the court the victim realised she was being filmed when she saw a mobile phone on the floor pointed directly at her.

On February 23, this year, just after 12.30pm, Goodacre was driving when he saw a 27-year-old woman with her two-year-old daughter.

Goodacre followed the victim, parked his car outside Kaisercraft in Gilbert St, Torquay, and followed her inside the store.

When the victim was browsing, Goodacre squatted down and placed his phone underneath the her dress for about 15 seconds.

On December 7, 2021, Goodacre was working as a plasterer at a site on Gheringhap St in Geelong and asked a 56-year-old woman to help him move a desk.

Constable Frame said the victim walked over Goodacre’s phone and did not realise she was filmed until police told her.

On September 22 that same year, an unknown woman was also filmed. Police said they were unable to identify the victim, but discovered the evidence on his phone.

The teenage girl told the court she felt “sick” and “angry” that someone would invade her privacy.

The 27-year-old woman said she felt “paranoid” and “scared” since the incident.

“I thought I would be angry, but I am more deflated”.

She said she was devastated that someone would stalk and film her in broad daylight.

Goodacre’s lawyer Melanie Cox said her client was disgusted in himself for what he had done to his family.

The court heard Goodacre had seen a psychologist and also self referred himself to a sex-offender program.

Magistrate Simon Guthrie described the offending as “planned” and said there was some strategy involved in the upskirting.

“I can only imagine the impact on the victims,” Mr Guthrie said.

Goodacre, who plans to move interstate, was sentenced to a 15-month community corrections order without conviction.

Originally published as Brendan Goodacre pleads guilty to upskirting women