Backpacker finds elaborate set-up of spy cameras in room

A Dutch backpacker on holiday has made a creepy find inside his Queensland accommodation while staying with four friends.

A Dutch backpacker has made a horror discovery after seeing a series of USB cables around his Sunshine Coast tourist accommodation.

The backpacker, who was staying at the property in the Glasshouse Mountains with four friends, had responded to an ad asking for volunteer backpackers to work for an animal transport business in return for meals and accommodation.

The owner of the property claims he didn't know the cameras were illegal.

In a video he posted to Facebook last month, Maron de Rooij, 26, outlined the elaborate network of cameras he discovered throughout the accommodation in the Sunshine Coast property.

These included infra-red sensors and cameras hidden beneath small drilled holes in the shelving and other furniture.

One of the cameras in the accommodation.

Some of the cameras were disguised by bird statues.

Trinkets like kookaburras and chickens were glued in place to stop tenants removing wires or putting towels over the camera lenses, according to Mr de Rooij, who posted the video to Facebook in June, saying, “Cops are here, I called them.”

Mr De Rooij said he became particularly suspicious of the homeowner, Conrad-River Owen Cosgrove, who instructed the backpackers to “shower every day,” telling them it was a rule of the house, according to the Sunshine Coast Daily.

Dutch backpacker, Maron de Rooij, 26, called police after he grew suspicious.

Maroochydore Magistrates Court heard yesterday an audio wire extended form the backpacker accommodation to Cosgrove’s house.

Seven more cameras were found in a container, and a series of cameras were found facing the shower.

“I did not realise I was breaking the law, that’s only an explanation, it’s not an excuse,” Cosgrove told the court, saying he kept the footage for “personal gratification”.

Yesterday Cosgrove pleaded guilty to two charges of observations or recordings in breach of privacy and to possessing tainted property.

He was sentenced to two concurrent six-month jail terms for both offences, suspended for 18 months.