Mark Stephen Lester, who is listed online as a chief financial officer for a South Canterbury engineering firm, pleaded guilty to a count of offensive behaviour at the Dunedin District Court this morning.
While the 53-year-old father of three had no previous convictions, the court he had been previously granted diversion in 2008 for “peeping”.
He was at Moana Pool on November 10, as were the victims - a mother with her 12-year-old daughter and 9-year-old son – having a “cheer-up day” because of a recent family bereavement.
The trio were in a family changing room while Lester was next door, a police summary said.
The defendant used a 10cm gap at the top of the dividing wall, along with a mirror, to watch the victims as they got changed.
When the mother noticed what was happening she forced her way into his cubicle and found him standing on the bench.
Lester barged past her and locked himself in a toilet where he tried to flush the mirror away.
When police arrived, they found the broken mirror in the toilet.
The woman told the Otago Daily Times after the incident that she thought Lester had been filming them on his phone, but counsel Noel Rayner stressed the device had been analysed and no illicit footage had been found.
“It was more in the nature of a peeping kind of offence,” he said.
The mother described the ordeal as “pretty disturbing”.
"I don’t know if the man was recording what he was seeing on the mirror or what he was doing there, but it did worry me a lot,” she said at the time.
Judge Emma Smith said the incident had “devastated” the victims and permanently changed their family dynamics.
She said Lester’s act was clearly deliberate.
“You knew entirely what you were doing, for, I suspect, your own sexual gratification,” the judge said.
Mr Rayner said his client had been attending counselling to address his behaviour and had written an apology to the family.
Lester was originally charged with doing an indecent act but that was today amended to offensive behaviour, which carries a maximum penalty of a $1000 fine.
The defendant was ordered to pay the victims $750 to address their emotional harm, along with $142 court costs.
