A Sydney high school teacher has been caught secretly filming up the skirts of female students in his classroom using a hidden mobile phone, in behaviour police have described as brazen, predatory and opportunist.
Eric Wong, a 28-year-old science and STEM teacher from Hornsby, was caught by a 16-year-old female student at Cammeraygal High School in Crows Nest on Sydney’s lower north shore when the girl bumped into a white board and dislodged a hidden phone.
Eric Wong arrives at Hornsby Court on Wednesday with his solicitor.Credit: Nick Moir
After the principal was informed and notified police, Wong was charged and has pleaded guilty to two counts of filming a person’s private parts without consent.
A police search of Wong’s home revealed hundreds of videos and photographs on a computer and storage device of girls in school uniform in his classroom, including images up their skirts and of their breast area.
A police statement of facts lodged in Hornsby Local Court details how in December last year, Wong asked a female student to remain behind in the classroom of the co-educational school.
Wong invited the girl to the front of the classroom to his workbench and directed her to his laptop. She walked around to the teacher’s side of the bench, facing the classroom, where she then completed a task on his computer.
“The victim took a step backwards and knocked her body into a free-standing smart board,” police facts state.
“When the victim knocked and moved the smart board backwards, the victim saw a mobile phone that had been purposely placed on the ground leaning in an upwards position leaning against the smart board fall to the ground.”
Wong then “immediately … leant down to the mobile phone, picking it up, and making a comment he left it there previously before class”.
When the girl tried to talk about the phone, Wong “changed the conversation immediately”.
“The victim formed the opinion that the camera on the mobile phone was purposely placed in an upwards position and was filming her whilst standing at the teacher bench.”
She left and immediately told a friend.
After the incident, which occurred on a Friday, she told one of her parents on Sunday, and the parent accompanied the girl to school on Monday to inform Cammeraygal’s principal Kathy Melky.
Police were called. Wong was arrested and cautioned the next day. Ten days later he was arrested and charged. The principal informed the school community that day and Wong was “stood down”.
A police examination of his home computer found 90 videos that Wong made of female students at Cammeraygal High School wearing the school uniform, consisting of a pleated skirt with black, red, white and grey coloured stripes, a white short sleeve blouse and school tie.
In the videos, Wong was “randomly walking around his science classroom with his mobile phone camera / video application on and recording”, police said.
Police said Wong targeted only female students.
“The accused walks up next to or behind the female student and whilst talking to them or observing them undertaking their science experiment the accused discreetly positions his mobile phone in position to film private parts (buttocks, anus, groin) underneath the female student’s pleated school dress,” the police facts said.
“In some video files the accused can be seen talking to the female victims and then glance towards his mobile phone, the mobile phone is then repositioned making sure he is capturing the stated areas of the female body.”
He would also “discreetly position” the camera to record the girls’ breasts and stomach areas underneath the blouse which is worn loose.
Police also identified 300 photographic files of girls in uniform in class and of their buttocks, groin and breast areas.
“The forensic examination of video files demonstrates the brazen, predatory and opportunist behaviour of the accused, preying on female school students in his science and iSTEM classes,” the police facts state, noting that Wong “is a teacher, a person in a position authority and trust”.
“The accused has breached this authority and trust by his actions and behaviour”.
In her principal’s letter, Melky told the school community that “a serious criminal charge has been laid by NSW Police against a staff member of our school”.
She wrote that “the employee has been stood down and is barred from entering school sites”.
“I understand this news may cause you and your family concern or distress,” she wrote.
Support services were offered.
Wong was responsible for senior prefects and the student representative council and earned praise in school newsletters for organising study workshops for senior students.
Two further counts of possessing child abuse material and one of producing child abuse material were withdrawn and dismissed.
Wong will be sentenced next week. The maximum sentence for filming a person’s private parts without consent is five years in prison.
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