The Gold Coast Bulletin

Serial ‘upskirter’ free after 152 days in custody

- LEA EMERY

MORE than 290 videos were taken up the skirts of Gold Coast women in a two-year period by a former real estate agent who would put music to video montages and post them online.

Nicholas Rhys Owen, 29, would take the videos of unsuspecti­ng women using camera on his shoe or a bag.

Owen also had a side business of selling fake Queensland driver’s licences, complete with holographi­c images for $75 a pop. Owen, an ice addict, also uploaded confidenti­al police files online, purchased counterfei­t cash off eBay and was found with drugs. a

He walked from the Southport Watchhouse yesterday after spending 152 days in custody.

Owen was sentenced to 15 months prison which was suspended yesterday, two years probation and fined $900.

Magistrate Gary Finger said the videos were the “ultimate invasion of women’s privacy” and were uploaded to a website which had 40 million hits.

“The images were used for yours and other’s perverted pleasure and gratificat­ion,” Mr Finger said.

The videos were taken between August 2014 and November 2016.

Owen cried after pleading guilty yesterday in Southport Magistrate­s Court to multiple charges including invasion of privacy, obtaining and dealing with identifica­tion informatio­n

“You might stand there blubbering and so you should,” Mr Finger said.

The court was told Owen also took a files from a police USB and uploaded them on to the internet.

 ??  ?? Nicholas Rhys Owen leaving Southport Watchhouse.
Nicholas Rhys Owen leaving Southport Watchhouse.

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