Homestay student recorded host showering

A FIJIAN homestay student who secretly filmed his host in the bathroom was also found with footage of the Christchurch mosque shootings, a court has heard.

Josevata Hamilton Turagakula Raikoti (23) pleaded guilty to making intimate visual recordings, theft and possessing an objectionable publication when he appeared in the Dunedin District Court this week.

Police might never have found the footage of March’s massacre had the defendant’s hidden cameras not been found in the family home in April.

Raikoti’s cellphone was sent away for forensic analysis to uncover the extent of the covert filming and staff in the electronic crime laboratory found more than they expected.

The defendant had downloaded a video — labelled ‘‘in Christchurch Mosque’’ — on the day of the attacks.

Raikoti claimed he had simply clicked a link and the file had automatically downloaded to his phone.

He ‘‘only watched it two or three times’’, he told police.

The new charge resulted in Raikoti being denied bail and he has been in custody now at least three months.

Early this year, Raikoti imported several minicameras which he hid in the bathroom of the family’s home.

One was taped to a bucket and pointed at the shower, the court heard.

The batteryoperated devices would record for an hour then the defendant would retrieve them and download the footage to his phone.

Raikoti repeated this method on 40 occasions.

During the same period, he sneaked into the victim’s bedroom and stole at least five pairs of her underwear.

It was all done for his sexual gratification, Raikoti admitted.

The victim’s father said the entire family, who had embraced the defendant as one of them over the four years of his stay, were disgusted by his actions.

Other homestay students his daughter had hosted had been reclusive but Raikoti would interact with the children and became well liked.

That was until his lewd ploy was scuppered.

The man said he wanted Raikoti to be locked up for his crimes and then immediately returned to

Fiji.

‘‘He is a disgrace to his family,’’ the man said.

Raikoti will be sentenced in February next year.