Men filmed using Riccarton mall toilet

A man was caught in a mall toilet cubicle with a cellphone containing a folder titled ‘‘Spy Toilet’’.

The folder contained 101 videos and images of men’s genitalia as they used the urinal, taken through holes poked through the toilet cubicle wall or over the top of the wall.

The 23-year-old was caught when police raided a cubicle in the men’s toilet at Riccarton’s Westfield Mall on January 12 last year. The man, a migrant who has name suppression, faces possible deportation to South America after his sentencing by Judge Tom Gilbert in the Christchurch District Court yesterday.

He was found guilty at a judgealone trial in December and convicted of wilful damage for poking holes in the toilet wall, and a representative charge of making the intimate visual recordings. He was also convicted of failing to come to court while on bail.

Defence counsel Natalie Wham said the man wished to apologise to all the victims, but none of their names were known.

He has been refused name suppression but has appealed the decision in the High Court. That hearing has been held but the decision has not been released. If Judge Gilbert had jailed the man, Immigration New Zealand would have considered deporting him after he had served his time. Because he got a communitybased sentence – six months’ home detention and 100 hours’ community work – the immigration authorities may consider his deportation immediately.

Wham said the man had done 200 hours of voluntary work while he was on remand and wished to continue doing that as his community work.

‘‘He feels remorse for what he has done . . . The fact that he has caused harm has been an unpleasant surprise for him.’’

He had been attending counselling with a migrant support organisation.

In December 2017, mall staff found someone had drilled small holes in the walls of a toilet cubicle, about waist height, giving a view to the urinal. They repaired the holes, but later found they had been reopened.

The judge said he had to consider how to hold the man accountable. His offending involved a large number of victims. He noted the man had no previous convictions. He said the legislation did not allow him to take into account the possibility of immediate deportation in imposing the sentence.