Judge jails man for Melbourne stalking campaign
A STALKER targeted “pretty victims” to film through their bedroom windows, before checking their mail so he could search for them on Facebook.
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A CREEPY stalker who filmed his unsuspecting adult and child victims through their bedroom windows has been jailed for eight years.
Steven Burke, 39, was already on the sex offenders register when he was caught with a massive stash of child exploitation material on ten electronic devices in December 2015.
When police looked through the devices they realised he had embarked on a campaign of stalking across Melbourne and had around half a million indecent files in his possession.
Burke would follow victims home and spy on them through their windows.
He would then look at their mail to get their names so he could look them up on Facebook at home.
Burke has also set up a hidden camera to take photos of a 17-year-old girl at a boarding school in Melbourne.
Judge Christopher Ryan sentenced Burke after the computer salesman pleaded guilty to charges including stalking, accessing child porn using a carriage service, using a carriage service to access child abuse material, making child porn, being a convicted sex offender loitering at a school and knowingly possessing child porn.
“The community must be protected from you,” Judge Ryan said.
Judge Ryan gave details of some of the images seized which he had seen, which are too depraved for the Herald Sun to print.
The County Court heard that police arrested Burke on December 15, 2015, at his home. Burke then made a number of admissions during interview.
He had been using his iPhone to take videos and photographs of various stalking victims through the windows of their homes.
Police also found 7,964 child exploitation files on his electronic devices.
Burke had accessed the encrypted files via the darknet.
The court heard Burke was bailed following his December arrest but was arrested again while in a parked car in Elwood on May 6, 2016.
On that occasion police seized an iPad, external hard drive, USB stick and an iPhone.
Burke told police he had been looking through windows to “perv” on the occupants.
He would use his phone to record his stalking but sometimes perform sex acts on himself while he was looking through the windows.
The court heard he targeted “pretty victims” and then got their names from their mail so he could stalk them further online.
In Richmond, he filmed a naked 15-year-old girl through a window. In another incident he filmed a woman, in five different videos, through her window as she was in various stages of undress.
In Hawthorn, he filmed a woman and took 103 photographs of her groin area through a window.
And in Elwood he took 110 photos and two videos of a woman as she was lying naked on her bed.
That victim told police she had seen the shape of a man through her bedroom and shower window.
Burke admitted he had attended that victim’s property around 50 different times over a period of around six months.
Burke began to stalk one Burwood woman who he had sold a computer to before turning his attention to her two teenage daughters after sneaking up to their home.
Judge Ryan sentenced Burke to an overall period of eight years in jail with a non-parole period of six years.
He said: “I regard your prospects for rehabilitation as bleak.”