Ian Richard Duncan, 53, sentenced over filming young woman in shower, possessing ‘vile’ child exploitation material

An IT worker who sewed a mobile phone into a bathroom towel to record a young woman showering in her home was on probation for similar offences at the time, a court has been told.

Ian RIchard Duncan, 53, leaves Cairns Magistrates Court after an earlier court appearance.

An IT worker who sewed a mobile phone into a bathroom towel to record a young woman showering in her home was on probation for similar offences at the time, a court has been told.

Ian Richard Duncan, 53, an information technology worker, was sentenced yesterday to 380 days imprisonment for possessing child exploitation material, which police found when they were investigating the 18-year-old woman’s complaint that a man had planted a mobile in the bathroom of her home.

Duncan was also sentenced yesterday on charges related to filming the woman, stealing three pairs of her underwear, and possessing cannabis and a drug utensil.

Crown prosecutor Naomi Nelson described the incident as a “gross breach of trust of the complainant in her own home”.

Ian Richard Duncan pleaded guilty to five charges in Cairns District Court.

The victim discovered the recording device on November 23, 2023, when she touched a towel in the bathroom and noticed it was hot, Ms Nelson said.

The young woman fled the house, went to her mother, and they called police, the court was told.

“The defendant has moved away – halfway across Australia in her own words – and has been unable to return to Cairns or her family home (because of this incident),” Ms Nelson said when tendering a victim impact statement.

Police found Duncan three days after the incident was reported at a home in Redlynch, the court was told.

When police searched the house and man’s car, they discovered a red USB containing 19 files of child exploitation material, 18 of which were the most serious kind involving “vile” acts against children as young as two.

Defence barrister Aaron Dunkerton said Duncan’s life had otherwise been “somewhat ordinary”; Duncan was raised by his mother and gained qualifications in business computing before working in information technology for most of his life.

Mr Dunkerton said Duncan “felt ashamed that he had done it again” (related to the filming) and acknowledged the affects the child exploitation material would have on the children filmed.

Duncan, who has been in custody since his arrest in November 2023, pleaded guilty to all charges on Tuesday before Judge Dean Morzone KC.

Judge Morzone said the offences were especially concerning because Duncan was on probation at the time, having been sentenced to a jail term earlier in 2023 for multiple charges of recording in breach of privacy for offences committed in Cairns in late 2022 and early 2023.

Duncan’s criminal history also included breach of privacy offences in 2010 and possession of child exploitation material – 268 images and one video – in 2014, for which Duncan was sentenced to a suspended jail term.

“I have to deter you from doing this again and send a message to the community that this (possessing child exploitation material) is vile criminal conduct against young people that ricochets through their lives from beginning to end,” Judge Morzone said.

Judge Morzone sentenced Duncan to 380 days imprisonment and declared his pre-sentence custody as time served, meaning Duncan was eligible for immediate release.

He remains on a probation order.

Judge Morzone said Duncan needed to use the “significant period of probation” to get help, support and complete courses towards rehabilitation so that he does not remain one of the “group of people that cause so much damage to young people’s lives”.

Originally published as Ian Richard Duncan, 53, sentenced over filming young woman in shower, possessing ‘vile’ child exploitation material