Man who photographed naked children in the changing rooms of a public establishment sentenced to four years in prison

Warning: This story deals with sexual crimes and may be distressing.

A man who hid in the locker rooms of three different recreational facilities and covertly took photographs of naked children at two of them has been sentenced to four years in prison.

Five years after his first crime, he was finally caught after an associate to whom he had given his computer for repair gave police a copy of files showing photographs of naked children.

The 48-year-old, who has lived a reclusive existence, was sentenced today in Nelson District Court on four counts of performing an indecent act, two of which were representative charges, and three counts of knowingly possessing an objectionable publication (the latter). forming the main charges for which he was sentenced.

The crime occurred at public recreational facilities in the upper South Island.

He was denied permanent name suppression, in part due to the public’s right to know, but a provisional suppression order was imposed when his lawyer indicated that an appeal was possible.

The parents of one of the victims told the court today that their son was only 10 years old at the time. Until then, they had never had reason to be afraid, but the effects of the man’s offense had been profound.

His crime dates back to December 2018, when he photographed girls between the ages of 6 and 10 in a facility.

Many of the victims remain unknown and were probably unaware of what happened.

Crown prosecutor Jeremy Cameron said the offending had been habitual, had a “frightening escalation” in severity and had occurred against a background of proven previous offences.

He said the man’s offense had shifted from possessing and creating objectionable images to interacting with young people.

Cameron said there was no proven link between the man’s mental health diagnosis and his offending when it was driven by his sexual interest in children.

The prosecutor said that the difficulties in the defendant’s education should not reduce his moral culpability.

In January 2019, the defendant was in the changing rooms of the other complex when he took a series of 18 photographs of naked children between the ages of 8 and 10 while they were changing.

That same month, he covertly photographed two girls, ages 5 and 7, sitting at a table across from him at a restaurant.

In October 2019, an adult who regularly used the facility where boys were photographed noticed for several weeks that the defendant, on about six occasions, was acting strangely in the men’s locker room.

She saw him in a shower stall, peeking through a crack in the door as people passed by.

He would then “leave” the cubicle when a small child passed by, but if an adult passed by, he would close the door and remain inside the cubicle.

On one occasion, the witness noticed the man in the main part of the locker room, naked except for a towel wrapped around his lower torso.

He then turned to a group of unaccompanied children, aged between 5 and 6, and exposed himself while smiling.

The man who witnessed the incident reported it to staff, but because English was his second language, he had difficulty communicating what he saw. The director of the center reported the incident to the police.

A few weeks later, the witness returned to the center and a staff member asked him to go to the locker room and identify if the man there was the same one he had reported earlier.

He confirmed it was the same man and staff called the police. The defendant told them that he would look out of the stall to “check if there was anyone waiting to use the shower.”

His explanation for exposing himself was that he had left the shower to get his drink that he had left on the shelf and “the children may have seen him return naked to the shower.”

He told police he was “rarely naked inside the locker room,” but since it was a locker room, “a level of nudity was expected.”

Then they invaded the complex.

In November 2021, the accused was at another recreational facility in a different town in the upper South Island and entered a changing room at the same time as two boys aged 10 and 11.

He took off his clothes completely and crossed the locker room to the shower cabin where the boys were also showering.

When they returned to the locker room, the man left the cubicle he was in, sat on a bench near the children, began to apply soap to his body and masturbated.

There was no one else in the room.

He later told police he had no sexual interest in children.

Judge Tony Zohrab said in sentencing him that although the facts indicated the defendant knew what he was doing was wrong, he still denied having a sexual interest in children.

In October 2021, his partner found several photographs of naked children on the man’s computer. However, it was not until March 2023 that the associate reported the discovery to the police and provided a copied version of the files saved on a storage device.

Police found six Category A images, around 40 Category B images and more than 550 Category C images, many of which depicted “horrible and disgusting sexual abuse” of children, Judge Zohrab said.

The police also found a series of 73 photographs and videos taken by the accused between February and November 2018 of two girls between the ages of 6 and 10.

He later admitted to having images of naked children on electronic devices, but did not believe they were “objectionable.”

Judge Zohrab said it was “really important” that he understood that the victims were real children and not cartoons or “cyphers”.

“I hope you can stop feeling sorry for yourself and reflect on what you have done and how it must have affected those children.”

Judge Zohrab said the application for permanent name suppression did not meet the threshold of extreme hardship, including those his mother would likely suffer if her name were published.

“The concern is that the sins of your son, you, would fall on her,” Judge Zohrab said, adding that the defendant’s mother was well respected and held a responsible position in the community where she lived.

The man has 28 days to file an appeal against the denied deletion request.

The sports facilities involved say they have made operational changes to ensure similar crimes do not occur again.

Tracy Neal is a Nelson-based Open Justice reporter at NZME. She was previously RNZ’s regional reporter in Nelson-Marlborough and has covered general news including courts and local government for the Nelson Mail.