Ryan Yates jailed for filming women in Newcastle University toilets and child abuse material
Women have told of their shattered sense of safety after discovering they were being secretly filmed in a Newcastle university bathroom. That man has now been sentenced.
The victims of a peeping tom who filmed women from the top of a toilet cubicle at a university campus bathroom have have told a courtroom of the “traumatic” experience of finding out, feeling violated and stripped of their dignity.
Ryan Yates, 24, from Fletcher walked into the female bathroom at the University of Newcastle’s Hunter St campus on April 29 last year and started filming from the top of the cubicles.
The court heard over a period of about 13 minutes between 2-2:30pm, he recorded six different females without their consent whilst they were using the toilet and also attempted to record a seventh female.
An investigation was sparked by Newcastle detectives when several women came forward and reported they were being filmed before Yates was arrested at his home on May 9, with those images located on his phone.
“To have this space violated, my privacy and my body, is deeply distressing,” one of the women said during his sentencing at Newcastle District Court on Friday.
“To have your dignity stripped away by someone else’s actions, it’s taken away more of my sense of safety and freedom, affected my ability to trust others.”
The 24-year-old pleaded guilty to seven charges of record and attempt to record intimate images.
Yates has also pleaded guilty to a charge of solicit child abuse material, possession of child abuse material, transmit child abuse material to oneself, produce child abuse material and transmit indecent material.
Those charges relate to the 24-year-old using messaging platform ‘Telegram’ to solicit child abuse material, contacting users for “good darknet content” and “prices and samples” in April and May last year.
The court heard Yates also asked an AI generator to generate images relating to a “preteen redhead girl” in various states of undress.
60 explicit images were generated of girls aged between 8-12 in which he screenshot and saved on his phone in a vault application.
It was also heard he messaged an unidentified female on May 6 who told him she was 14 and he proceeded to message her asking for pictures before sending one of himself “completely naked”.
On Friday, the parties argued over whether full time imprisonment was appropriate given his mental health background, with including a diagnosis of autism and ADHD.
Defence barrister Ben Bickford asked for an immediate release and noted there was some intoxication at the time of the offence and there was a nexus between his history of mental health and the commission of his offences.
But the Crown Prosecutor argued experts put him at a high risk of reoffending and the offences against the women at the uni were “considered” and “deliberate” when he entered into the bathroom, returning six times.
Judge Helen Wilson said these crimes made the entire female community feel unsafe and stated there was some form of planning with images held in an encrypted vault on his phone.
She said while the charges were serious in nature, they were “less serious” than many with a small number of child abuse images and engagement over a short period but did note the number of victims did increase criminality.
Ms Wilson said she accepted his conditions contributed to his poor decision making.
He was jailed for a total of eight months and on his release was ordered to undertake a treatment program.
He’s also been placed on the child protection registry for eight years.
Originally published as Ryan Yates jailed for filming women in Newcastle University toilets and child abuse material
