Former Whittlesea council employee Liam Isherwood escapes conviction for filming colleagues on toilet

A grub filmed his work colleagues and unsuspecting victims using the toilets at various Melbourne shopping centres during a sickening and prolonged period of offending.

Former Whittlesea Council employee Liam Isherwood was sentenced to an 18-month community corrections order for filming his colleagues on the toilet.

A grub set up surveillance cameras inside multiple Melbourne shopping centres and workplaces — including a Melbourne council — to secretly film unwitting victims using the toilet.
Liam Isherwood, 22, was sentenced to an 18-month community corrections order after he pleaded guilty to using an optical surveillance device to record persons without consent.

Isherwood was arrested after he was caught secretly filming Whittlesea Council employees while they used the toilet.

The investigation erupted after a council employee caught Isherwood taking photos of him while he used the toilet on April 18 this year.

Senior council staff were alerted to his offending before reporting Isherwood to police.

Liam Isherwood was sacked by the Whittlesea Council after they found out he had been filming fellow employees in the toilet. Picture: Supplied

Isherwood took multiple videos and photos of various staff on multiple occasions between March 7 and April 18, and was sacked after his offending was exposed to senior staff.

Isherwood was caught with the toilet videos and images and child abuse material after he was arrested at his South Morang home on April 19.

Investigators also discovered evidence Isherwood had secretly filmed inside male toilets at various shopping centres and workplaces going back to 2022.

Isherwood set up a camera in the staff toilets at Coles Mill Park and secretly filmed various people on multiple occasions between December 2022 and July last year.

Liam Isherwood installed secret cameras at shopping centres across Melbourne in 2022.

Police also found Isherwood had set up cameras at Highpoint in May 2022 and at Victoria Gardens in Richmond in June 2022.

Isherwood also set up a secret camera inside the men’s toilets at Westfield Shoppingtown Doncaster in December 2022.

Two victim impact statements were read out to the court, with one victim saying they felt “discomfort and embarrassment” as a result of Isherwood’s offending.

One of the victims said the wanted to stop working at the council as a result of the offending.

“I’ve been actively looking at other jobs,” they said in their statement.

The other victim impact statement spoke about the embarrassment of having to meet with the chief executive to identify themselves sitting on a toilet after they had been filmed by Isherwood, while they also said they did not want to go to shopping centres such as Victoria Gardens.

The court heard Isherwood felt “deep shame” over behaviour and had written letters of apology to the victims.

He has not been able to work since he was charged by police, and had suffered from “cruel media coverage”.

Magistrate John Bentley took into account Isherwood’s age, his early plea of guilty and that he had no prior criminal history.

“Your chances of rehabilitation are great, you’ve got a very supportive family,” Mr Bentley said.