Stalker filmed buttocks in voyeuristic binge

Depression, booze and bit of weed conspired to end a man's 15-year battle to control his urges and sent him on a voyeuristic trawl of Napier's CBD to look at women and young girls, a judge was told.
In one case 55-year-old Steven Rowan McDonald stalked a woman around city shops and held a cellphone below her skirt to record images of her buttocks.
In another he entered the changing rooms of a dance recital in the Municipal Theatre and clandestinely watched three 16-year-old girls undressing.
The details were revealed yesterday after McDonald appeared in Napier District Court where he pleaded guilty to two charges of making an intimate video recording and one of unlawfully entering premises.
Defence counsel Philip Jensen, seeking to have the man convicted and ordered to come up for sentence if called upon, said McDonald had been living in Hawke's Bay isolated from other members of his family who lived elsewhere, mainly in Auckland.
After his son visited from overseas he started drinking again, and smoking cannabis, and he was no longer able to control urges he'd suppressed for 15 years, Mr Jensen said.
Judge Tony Adeane said whatever the explanation "the community is not going to like this". He needed further information about the man, and sentencing could not be done yesterday. Mr Jensen said he had hoped the matter could be sorted so McDonald could move back to Auckland to be closer to his family.
Judge Adeane compromised by remanding McDonald for sentence in the Auckland District Court on February 11.