'I saw women as bodies, not people': Teacher filmed students, women at the mall

A teacher who secretly filmed students at the secondary school where he worked, as well as multiple “up skirts” of women out shopping, has been granted permanent name suppression.

The man, who is no longer working as a teacher, was granted name suppression in the Auckland District Court last week to protect the fragile mental health of his partner.

He was there to be sentenced on a charge of intimidation, having pleaded guilty to following a teenager through Auckland’s St Lukes Mall to her car in January.

Once his phone was seized by police and forensically searched less than two months later, it was discovered that he had repeatedly filmed students, including a 14-year-old.

This covert filming, and “up skirts” of women out shopping, were the basis for a representative charge of making an intimate visual recording, which he also admitted.

According to the summary of facts, on an afternoon in January, as the 19-year-old entered the mall, she noticed the man, who she didn’t know, walking in next to her.

While buying something from a shop, she noticed he was watching her, and as she left the store, he was again walking within 1m of her, making her feel uneasy.

He followed her out while she slowed her pace to see if he was following her.

Frightened, she phoned her mother, telling her what was happening, making eye contact with the man.

When she left the mall and climbed the stairs to where her car was parked, she looked down and saw him at the bottom of the stairs, staring up at her.

She got into her car, locked the doors and lost sight of him.

Her mother contacted the mall security who found CCTV footage of the man following the 19-year-old and other young women that day.

A ‘voyeurism fetish’ for post-pubescent women

The teacher later told the police he had a “voyeurism fetish” and an attraction to women, which was why he was following them like this.

He admitted to filming women while he followed them but said he had an attraction to post-pubescent women, believing the ones he filmed were around 16.

A police search of his phone found he had been filming students at his school, and women out shopping, from December last year to days before his phone was seized.

This included clips of the underwear or buttocks of three women out shopping, which were deleted, but traces of the recordings were found on his phone.

The search also found multiple clips of the clothed breasts of a 14-year-old student, filmed during the same two-and-a-half-month period and those of two women shopping at St Lukes in January.

Name suppression

In court, Judge Nicola Mathers granted the teacher’s application for permanent name suppression, as she found it would likely cause extreme hardship to his long-term partner and she could be a danger to herself if he was named.

The man’s lawyer, Ashley Gruebner, said she couldn’t think of what more her client could have done to show his remorse and attempts at rehabilitation.

He had immediately admitted to police what he had done, attended a restorative justice conference with the mother of the intimidation victim and donated $1000 to the victim or a cause of her choice, Gruebner said.

Her client had also been to Community Alcohol and Drug Services (CADS) to address his cannabis and alcohol issues and had been seeing a psychologist regularly since March, she said.

Stress, burnout and trying for a baby

Gruebner said the psychologist had reported that at the time of the recordings, the teacher was going through a particularly stressful time in his life, dealing with burnout and trying to start a family.

Those stressors increased his vulnerability, and drove his illegal behaviour, particularly the “capturing element” that became “increasingly rewarding” and essential, Gruebner reported the psychologist saying.

Gruebner also requested that a condition of his community-based sentence be that he not be allowed a video-capable phone.

The man was no longer employed as a teacher, Gruebner said, and had voluntarily signed a document saying he would no longer teach.

The matter was before the Teaching Council and those proceedings would begin after sentencing, she said.

Judge Mathers said in the pre-sentence report, the man told the report writer that he “disputed” the idea that he had an attraction to underage girls.

Instead, he told the report writer, he had a long history of watching pornography and had come to view women primarily for their “physical attributes”.

“I saw women as bodies not people.”

‘How am I hurting them if they don’t know’

He said he was attracted to the physical development of women’s bodies, not their specific age.

The judge said the man first rationalised his behaviour, believing no harm was caused, thinking: “how am I hurting them if they don’t know”.

But he later realised what he was doing was wrong.

The judge said the intimidation victim had been very “forgiving” and read excerpts of her statement.

“You had no right to take from me what you did that day,” the victim said.

She believed in second chances, but if he ever saw her again to “please” leave her alone.

The judge also read a letter from the man’s partner who said throughout the time she had known him he had been respectful, caring and protective of others.

She had also seen him intervene when women were in vulnerable situations.

The judge reduced the man’s sentence for his early guilty pleas, rehabilitation efforts and “genuine remorse”.

She sentenced him to five months’ community detention, with a curfew of 9pm-6am, and 18 months’ intensive supervision.

A special condition of his sentence, the judge ordered, was not to associate with anyone under-16, apart from his own children, without a probation-approved adult supervisor present.

The judge also imposed judicial monitoring for the man, and he was to report to her over the coming months.

“I sincerely hope this type of offending has now ceased and you understand that women are not just bodies,” she told the man.

Ella Scott-Fleming has been a journalist for three years and previously worked at the Otago Daily Times, Gore Ensign and Metro Magazine. She has an interest in court and general reporting. She’s currently based in Auckland covering justice related stories.