Simon Luebbers charged with string of offences

Former police sergeant Simon Luebbers is also accused of secretly filming a woman, keeping naked images of her and sharing them with unknown men.

Simon Luebbers is yet to enter pleas to a string of stalking, hidden camera, child abuse material and escape custody charges.

A top former police prosecutor allegedly filmed a woman and a girl on hidden spy cameras, as part of a spate of alleged sex offending spanning more than a decade.

Simon Luebbers, 44, a former Victoria Police sergeant, was arrested in 2021 and until Wednesday has had his legal team keep his case heard largely in closed court.

If found guilty, he faces a lengthy potential jail term.

Mr Luebbers was arrested in an alleyway behind the Cremorne IGA in last year, where it is further alleged he tried to run from police and had to be crash tackled by an officer waiting in a nearby laneway.

Mr Luebbers is yet to enter pleas to a string of stalking, hidden camera, child abuse material and escape custody charges, but the court on Wednesday heard he had told a psychologist he intended to plead guilty.

Until Wednesday Luebbers had his legal team keep his case heard largely in closed court.

It is alleged Mr Luebbers filmed a woman in the mid-2000s, keeping a stash of naked images of her for more than a decade, and sharing them with at least two unknown men, who in return sent him video clips of them pleasuring themselves to him.

“These intimate recordings were made without the consent or knowledge of the victim,” police alleged.

It is further alleged Mr Luebbers filmed a young girl half-naked and kept copies of the videos on his mobile phone.

“(The victim) was unaware that the accused had concealed the optical recording device,” police alleged.

Many details of the alleged offending cannot be published.

The court on Wednesday heard Mr Lubbers had lost “virtually everything” he had worked for, including his decades-long policing career and his marriage.

He was supported in a packed courtroom only by his parent and siblings.

According to court documents, Mr Luebbers did not respond to police questions about his alleged hidden camera offending, and said of his short-lived escape attempt: “I don’t know what was going through my mind. I just panicked. I couldn’t even run properly”.

Mr Luebbers resigned shortly after he was arrested.

Mr Luebbers’ lawyers hope prosecutors might downgrade some of the charges.

He returns to court next Wednesday.