Shower cameras hidden in shampoo

A man filmed 34 women as they showered in the homestay he ran, then uploaded the videos to a porn site.

The Hawke’s Bay man, whose name is suppressed, filmed the women between December 2017 until his arrest in February this year.

Most guests were females aged under 30. They could use the shower or kitchen facilities by arrangement, and the man usually organised the shower times. After arranging the time he would place one or two covert cameras, disguised in shampoo bottles, in the bathroom and shower. He activated the cameras by remote control.

The bottles were positioned to record the guests’ bodies between their shoulders and knees, but faces were often visible. The recordings also captured guests undressing and dressing. After the guest had showered he would put the shampoo bottles away.

Then he would retrieve the cameras and download the videos to his computer hard drive. He created a profile on a pornographic website, which describes itself as ‘‘a moral free file host where anything legal is hosted forever’’ and ‘‘where you can meet like-minded individuals’’.

The man appeared in the Hastings District Court yesterday and pleaded guilty to 51 charges of making an intimate visual recording, seven charges of knowingly making an objectionable publication, seven charges of knowingly distributing an objectionable publication and four charges of publishing an intimate visual recording.

He will be sentenced in October.