AFP officer Joshua Rod Tiffen and twin brother Kenan Lee Tiffen deny share house spy camera allegations
A former Adelaide electrician has been accused of installing hidden cameras in his investment property so he and his police officer brother could make secret recordings of female tenants.
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An Australian Federal Police officer and his twin brother allegedly had a network of expertly installed spy cameras in the bedrooms of a Canberra share house, and are accused of recording compromising footage of women who lived there.
Police officer Joshua Rod Tiffen and his identical twin, electrician Kenan Lee Tiffen, both 42, have pleaded not guilty to four charges of capturing visual data of four women.
Joshua Tiffen has also pleaded not guilty to an additional charge of capturing visual data and to possessing child exploitation material.
In the ACT Magistrates Court on Monday, prosecutor Skye Jerome said the brothers owned and lived at a home in Forde, in Canberra’s northern suburbs, where they had three female tenants.
The prosecution case is that Kenan, formerly an electrician of Kensington in South Australia, installed the hidden cameras behind mirrors and in a TV, with both men viewing the invasive recordings on a mobile phone app.
The court would hear evidence the camera installation “appeared to be carried out by someone with electrical knowledge”, Ms Jerome said.
The hidden cameras came to light during an investigation into the child pornography Joshua Tiffen had allegedly accessed online, and the purchase of the secret cameras was confirmed by financial crime and money laundering watchdog Austrac, Ms Jerome said.
In a recorded conversation with detectives, Joshua Tiffen said they would “probably not” find so-called child exploitation material when they searched his home.
“Some of it, you look at and it’s questionable, and just because the site says it’s 18-plus … yeah, I don’t know,” he said.
Police found 2900 files of alleged child exploitation material.
In a long WhatsApp message thread found on the brothers’ phones, they are alleged to have been discussing watching the secretly filmed “reality TV” videos.
At one point, Ms Jerome said in her opening address, the brothers discussed getting “2000 idiots paying $25” to watch the videos.
They also discussed installing cameras in the bathroom and in a toilet brush, she said.
The hearing will also involve an application to run evidence that Joshua Tiffen installed a hidden camera in a public toilet, in what prosecutors say shows his tendency to record private footage of other people “for his own specific interests”.
During a police search, Joshua Tiffen is alleged to have said he had spy cameras for work, but a senior police officer will give evidence he was never trained by the AFP to install spy cameras, nor was he required to buy them for work.
The hearing, before Magistrate Glenn Theakston, continues.
Originally published as AFP officer Joshua Rod Tiffen and twin brother Kenan Lee Tiffen deny share house spy camera allegations