Pakenham man secretly hid camera in exchange student’s bathroom
A Pakenham man who hid a video camera in an international exchange student’s bathroom claims he wasn’t “into” young girls.
South East
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A Pakenham creep who hid a video camera in an international exchange student’s bathroom claims he made a “stupid mistake” and he wasn’t “into” young girls.
Wesley Williams, 58, pleaded guilty at Dandenong Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday to stalking and installing a surveillance device to record private activity.
The court heard Williams installed a video camera to the bottom of a wall cabinet in the bathroom used by an international exchange student he hosted at his Pakenham home in June last year.
Williams’ alarming antics came undone when the 17-year-old girl found the device that was directed towards her shower.
She took the SD card and discovered multiple video files that contained images of her bathroom and shower.
The girl reported the distressing incident to police with the support of a school wellbeing teacher.
The court heard the camera was set up in the girl’s bathroom for a week.
During a police interview, Williams said he made a “stupid mistake”.
“I don’t know what I was thinking, I got paranoid, it was just a stupid thing,” he said.
“I realised my actions were stupid and got rid of it.”
Williams said he wasn’t “into” young girls.
“Obviously the thoughts are that they think I was trying to look at her or something,” he said.
“I’m just not that way, I mean, you know, you get older, you don’t get the urge for it, for anything stupid or sexual in nature.
“There are people out there like that but I’m just not into young girls to be honest.”
Williams’ lawyer Adam Maloney said his client was remorseful and understood it was an invasion of privacy.
Magistrate Constantinos Kilias said the community would feel outraged and distressed over Williams’ offending.
“It doesn’t matter what age they are, it matters that their privacy was invaded, both secretly and in a distasteful way,” he said.
Williams was convicted and fined $6000.
