Shower film at Airbnb brings jail

A total of 34 women say they are ‘shocked, ashamed, angered and degraded’

Aformer Hastings prison officer has been jailed for more than four years for the covert filming of 34 women in the shower of his Hawke’s Bay Airbnb.

Tony Mark Greathead, 36, committed the offences between December and February in the Whakatu home where he lived with his wife and two children.

Greathead’s interim name suppression was withdrawn as he was sentenced to four years and four months’ jail in Hastings District Court yesterday.

The 69 charges he pleaded guilty to mostly related to the covert filming and distribution of images of unwitting guests, who ranged from locals to backpackers from around the world.

A total of 34 women mainly aged under 30 were filmed, and 11 videos were uploaded to a site under the profile “bathroomvoyeur”. Seven were objectionable.

A summary says Greathead cooperated immediately with the inquiry, producing the camera and computer he operated, and he pleaded guilty at an early stage to seven counts of making an objectionable publication and seven of distributing an objectionable publication, each of which has a maximum available penalty of 14 years in jail.

He also pleaded guilty to 51 charges of making an intimate visual recording and four of publishing an intimate visual recording, which each have a maximum penalty of three years’ jail. The charges were laid in an investigation after police were told in February of a woman being displayed on a pornographic website without her knowledge.

An immediate police response revealed the scale of the offending.

Greathead focused on female guests, although sometimes male partners entered the area when cameras were filming, hidden and directed to capture mainly the knees to shoulders area. He used text and other images to transform them into suggestive material for the website.

Police said all the victims were “shocked, ashamed, angered and degraded”, but Greathead told police there was no sexual element to his offending and that he had done it for the “thrill and risk of being caught”.

Incidents like this were “incredibly rare”, an Airbnb spokesperson said.