Police Appeal Removal of Name of Man Who Placed Spy Camera in Auckland Gym Locker Room | 1 NEWS



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A former high-ranking government manager set up a spy camera in an Auckland gym locker room capturing video of a naked couple, then set up the camera on at least three more occasions, the Auckland High Court has heard.

CCTV camera. Source: istock.com


By Veronica Schmidt of rnz.co.nz

Police who appealed the man’s dismissal without conviction and permanent removal of his name, argued that his crime, which took place on at least four different days, was not taken into account by District Court Judge Clare Bennett.

RNZ and NZME also challenged the removal of the man’s name.

Police prosecutor Mark Harborow said the man’s first video, on November 8, 2017, captured a naked couple entering and exiting a shower together, with the woman making sexual gestures, and this may have encouraged him to turn the camera on. in the gym changing rooms. again.

Harborow said that in rendering her judgment, Judge Bennett appeared to have referred to an outdated summary of events that indicated the man had placed a camera in the unisex gym locker room only once on November 23, 2017.

In fact, police said, one of the victims found the camera under a sink, attached with Velcro, and then police found Velcro under the sink of a second locker room.

Videos recovered from the phone showed that the man had recorded people for four days for two weeks, before a victim found the camera on November 23, 2017.

Police said this showed that the man’s offense was not an isolated event, as Judge Bennett had indicated. Police argued that the offense was more serious, with a greater degree of premeditation, which they said Judge Bennett had not adequately considered.

“This is not a spontaneous offense as could have been seen in the first summary of the facts,” Harborow said.

Police also questioned Judge Bennett’s comments that the man was extremely sorry, arguing that he had tried to downplay his crime by painting a picture of a single incident on November 23.

However, the man’s defense attorney, Ron Mansfield, described his client’s offense as “amateurish” and said that his client had not tried to downplay his offense, but had simply been responding to the accusation that was initiated regarding the “Isolated incident”.

The fact that the man had put the camera in the locker room more than once did not necessarily alter the severity of his offense or the level of premeditation, Mansfield said.

“There is nothing to indicate a high level of premeditation,” he said.

The man had asked to be discharged without conviction or name expungement, in part to protect his career but also to minimize the impact on the government organization he worked for, Mansfield said.

He was committed to the work the organization did and wanted to maintain his reputation, he said.

But police said the man had not told the government organization of his crime. They argued that it was the man’s offense, rather than being convicted, that would damage his career.

The government organization recently learned of the man’s offense and the man has since resigned.

The organization did not support the name suppression order, police said.

Judge Moore reserved his decision.

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