BUNBURY detectives had the undesirable task of trawling through more than 10 hours of footage recorded on a hidden device in a Waroona public toilet on April 6.
A cleaner located the recording devices in the bathroom and after a public call for assistance on Thursday, a 45-year-old Meadow Springs man was arrested on Friday.
South West Detectives officer-in-charge Senior Sergeant Jon Munday said 90 people were recorded while using the facilities.
“This type of activity is abhorrent – anyone who goes to a public toilet block doesn’t expect to have their activities from inside the cubicle recorded,” Senior Sergeant Munday said.
As a result of the review of the tapes the man will face 12 counts of indecently recording a child under 13, one count of using an optical device to record a private activity and one count of burglary.
Under the Surveillance Devices Act individuals are forbidden from producing visual or audio recordings of others without their consent which carries a penalty of a $5000 fine or 12 months imprisonment.
But if the footage is found to capture indecent images of children then the offence carries a maximum penalty of seven years.
Senior sergeant Munday said police were certain they had all the footage from the devices which were modified and well concealed.
“The public can rest assured that we have all the recordings and we do not plan on attempting to identify anyone captured in the footage,” he said.
“Incidents like this do not come along very often but the response from the public was significant and helped us to achieve such a swift result.”
The man will face the Mandurah Magistrates Court on May 9.
