Man sentenced for secret filming in women's toilets

A man who secretly filmed people using a customers' toilet at Rotorua's Starbucks cafe has been sentenced to 200 hours' community work and nine months' supervision.

Feiju Zhou, 25, who was working in Rotorua as a restaurant supervisor, appeared in Rotorua District Court today for sentencing after he had previously pleaded guilty to five charges of making intimate visual recordings.

Police say between June 1 and 15 this year Zhou hid a handycam digital video camera inside the unisex toilet at Starbucks which is used by customers.

Zhou set the camera to record after hiding all of the camera except the lens from view. On July 16 one of the people using the toilet discovered the camera and reported it to staff.

When spoken to by police Zhou admitted what he had done. He told police he had an addiction to watching women go to the toilet and bought the camera so he could make his own recordings to satisfy his urges.

Judge Phillip Cooper described Zhou's behaviour as serious offending and a gross breach of privacy.

The maximum penalty for the offending was three years' jail and Judge Cooper said often people went to prison in cases like this but he said this was not one of those cases.

- NZPA