William Gerardus Rush Huybregts sentenced in Townsville Magistrates Court for secretly filming visitors in bathroom, bedroom
A former US soldier living in Townsville has avoided jail after he advertised his residence online for visitors to use, then secretly filmed them in the shower. All the details of his invasive offending >>>
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In an environment where visitors should have felt safe and should have been able to shower privately, a man hid a secret camera to record them naked and additionally used it to film a woman he had sex with then told a psychologist he offended due to ‘personal development’.
William Gerard Rush Huybregts appeared in Townsville Magistrates Court on June 21 after his offending unravelled due to a curious woman noticed a suspicious bug spray can sitting atop a shower shelf.
Police prosecutor Sergeant John Moran detailed the invasive period of offending that spanned throughout 2020 and 2023, where Huybregts secretly recorded 158 videos that were found on an SD card and his laptop.
The 47-year-old former US soldier advertised his Railway Estate property on couchsurfing.com where there were agreements for visitors to stay at the accommodation free of charge, while he stayed at the residence also.
Sergeant Moran said the filming was exposed when a woman using the shower noticed the fly spray can sitting on a shelf at the rear of the tub and realised there was a camera where the nozzle was supposed to be.
The court was told inside the spray can was the camera, wires, a battery back and SD card inside a sandwich bag to ensure moisture was kept out.
It was upon this realisation that the police were contacted and they executed a search warrant of the man’s home finding the recordings of men and women with their genitals exposed – however only five women were identifiable from the videos.
Dates the videos were taken ranged from February 18, 2020 to March 19, 2020 and March 28, 2023 to August 25, 2023 and it was during 2020 that Huybregts also used the bug spray can to film himself having consensual sex with a woman in his bedroom, the court was told.
The currently-working geologist who has a fly in, fly out job with a Mt Isa mine was officially arrested on September 27 in 2023 at Brisbane Airport when police received notice he was travelling to Singapore.
Sergeant Moran said it was not suggested he was attempting to flee the jurisdiction, and while he had been granted bail after a couple of days he was only released after spending 36 days behind bars.
“The planning and sophistication falls within the worst category of offending,” Sergeant Moran said.
“The gross breach of trust is evident, those people who stayed there and used the app expected it was safe to go and at no point thought they were being recorded routinely.”
Sergeant Moran identified that the offending is easy to commit considering the digital age we live in and it was “chance” and “luck” that it came to an end.
Defence lawyer Ross Malcomson instructed by Strategic Lawyers said from the outset it was his client’s mental health diagnosis that his client suffered from at the time of the offending that played a key role.
Mr Malcomson said Huybregts had a depressive order diagnosis along with symptoms of anxiety and PTSD from his time serving in the US as he had been deployed to Iraq.
Additionally, the court was told the man had dual citizenship between America and Australia and had completed a degree at James Cook University where he was the president of the JCU Association.
Magistrate Steven Mosch when reflecting upon the man’s psychologist report, noticed the “bizarre” explanation of a motivation the man provided.
“He described it as personal development, he said he was tired of being stepped on and thought he needed to toughen up, he described feeling fearful every time he put the camera in the bathroom but said it was good to feel something other than nothingness,” His Honour said.
“It’s an unusual thought process,” Mr Malcomson agreed.
It was also highlighted that despite having the recordings Huybregts was not alleged to have revisited all of the videos to view.
Magistrate Mosch referred the offending as “deliberate and calculated”.
“A degree of sophistication was involved as its well beyond opportunistic,” he said.
He also suggested the offending may have been for “sexual gratification” and described it as “deviant behaviour”.
However, when handing down the final sentence His Honour said he took into account that due to the man’s mental health diagnosis, jail would be more onerous on him and said it would impact his rehabilitation efforts.
Huybregts pleaded guilty to 158 counts of recording someone’s genitals without consent and one count of possessing tainted property.
He was sentenced to 18 months’ jail, suspended for three years and his laptop was forfeited.
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Originally published as William Gerardus Rush Huybregts sentenced in Townsville Magistrates Court for secretly filming visitors in bathroom, bedroom
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