A former government employee has admitted making 1400 covert recordings of 180 school girls, women with babies and small children - including of women in changing rooms and a private bathroom.
The man appeared in Wellington District Court this morning and pleaded guilty to six charges of making intimate visual recordings. He was granted further name suppression, including suppression of his age and specifics of his role at the department, by Judge Chris Tuohy.
The police summary of facts were read in court.
The man modified his laptop bag by attaching a small camera using gaffer tape and used it to film up the skirts and dresses of 180 school girls and women.
Police say the recordings occurred along Lambton Quay and in central Wellington in food outlets and retail clothing stores.
He filmed 28 girls in school uniform, by following them holding the modified laptop bag in a position to film images of their underwear up their school uniforms, the court heard.
Five Wellington high schools were identified from the recordings. He would at times follow them into clothing stores and food outlets. The offending included 12 separate images of one victim.
The court heard the man would stand close to his victims and film up their skirts.
He also filmed 64 upskirt videos in the Wellington public library.
The court heard he filmed up the skirts and dresses of 140 mothers attending either babies or small children.
Police prosecutor Sergeant Kevin Shaw also said that between February and March this year the man used the modified laptop bag to film up the skirts of members of his church while he was door knocking with them in Wellington suburbs.
He also used the modified laptop bag to film images of his church colleagues' underwear while at church meetings.
The man filmed a bride-to-be being fitted for her wedding dress at a private address - capturing footage of her in her underwear and without clothes.
The man also installed a camera in the shower cavity of his home filming images of his wife's friends and a daughter of a family friend.
He was caught by a security guard using the modified laptop bag to film up the skirts and dresses of women and girls at Farmers on Lambton Quay.
The security guard caught him, but he denied filming up skirts and dresses at the time.
His lawyer, Andru Isac, said an application for permanent suppression was to be made, more for the protection of the man's wife.
The police have asked for the recordings to be destroyed.
He will appear in court next on July 24 for a pre-sentence report.
Internal Affairs spokesman Tony Wallace said yesterday the man's work computer had been examined but nothing untoward found on it.
Mr Wallace said there was nothing to indicate any of the alleged filming happened at any Internal Affairs sites.
Employees with concerns about the alleged offending or who had a close working relationship with the accused had been supported, Mr Wallace said.
