Stepfather sprung trying to record 13-year-old stepdaughter in shower after girl found hidden mobile phone

A 42-year-old man’s perverted attempt to record his underage stepdaughter in the shower backfired when the 13-year-old girl found his mobile phone hidden in the bathroom. The father appeared in Albany District Court on Monday where he pleaded guilty to two counts of attempting to indecently record a child who was a lineal relative or de facto child. State prosecutor Robert Clarke told the court the man was at his home near Mt Barker about 7pm on September 13, when he hid his mobile phone in a wash basket with the lens of the camera facing the shower. The recording was blocked by clothing, but two days later, the man tried again. Before his stepdaughter entered the bathroom on September 15, he placed his phone in the same hiding place. This time, his victim found the phone as she placed her clothes inside the wash basket. “The victim picked up the phone and realised it was recording,” Mr Clarke said. “She stopped the recording and viewed the start of the video, where she observed the offender being captured on the footage placing the phone in the wash basket.” Mr Clarke said the girl alerted her parents, took evidence of the phone and the recording, then locked herself in her room and called triple-0. Police attended but the step-father had fled the house wearing only shorts and a dressing gown, Mr Clarke said. He was arrested the next day and taken to Albany Police Station, where he rejected the accusations. At first, he suggested his three-year-old daughter took the phone, pressed record and put it in the wash basket. He then changed his story, telling police the phone had somehow slid into the wash basket as he went to get his toothbrush. Lawyer Larina Piesse told the court her client went into “denial mode” and made up a “nonsense story” in a state of panic. She said the man accepted his behaviour was a “gross invasion of the victim’s privacy”. The man avoided an immediate jail term, receiving a 12-month suspended prison sentence. “The State’s case, of course, was an overwhelming case, including an image of yourself on your own phone in the attempt. So you were, effectively, caught red-handed and there was no defence,” Judge Christopher Stevenson said. In his sentencing remarks, Judge Stevenson told the man his offending would stay with the victim and “alter her ability to have full and proper relationships”. “The offending, itself, is very serious. It strikes at the heart of familial relationships,” he said.