An Orange paedophile that rigged hidden cameras in his step-children's bedrooms and streamed the footage online has come face-to-face with his victims at a packed court hearing.
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The middle-aged man has pleaded guilty to two counts of producing child abuse material, intentionally recording intimate image without consent, three counts of intentionally distributing an intimate image without consent, four counts of possession of child abuse material, one of using a carriage service to possess child abuse material, as well as disseminating child abuse material.
He is not named to protect the identity of his victims.
According to court documents, the man captured video of underage girls after installing covert security cameras in the family home in Orange, including a camera that recorded video in a teenage girl's bedroom.
He also shared videos of a 15-year-old girl in a Kik app group and shared images of his now former partner.
How can someone say they love you more than anything on this earth and do such a horrific act.
- Victim impact statement in court
Those victims included his then partner and her teenage daughter who had no idea footage from a camera hidden in the girl's bedroom had been shared online until the police came knocking.
The man's former partner was the first to step up in court but needed another family member to read her statement due to the effects of the ongoing trauma.
The victim impact statement detailed the "shock and disbelief" she experienced when child protection officers arrived at her home with a search warrant regarding images of her daughter.
She said she felt like she'd let her daughter down describing it as "the most gut wrenching experience I ever had".
The woman herself was also a victim of the man's acts and was devastated to also learn that he had shared images of her with strangers.
"How can someone say they love you more than anything on this earth and do such a horrific act?"
"How many people have seen these pictures?"
"This is something I will never recover from."
The woman has since been diagnosed with post traumatic stress disorder and anxiety and has been medicated for trouble sleeping since she learnt of the man's crimes.
She's now been left to mourn the loss of someone she had loved "at the same time as hating them" and the realisation that she didn't know him at all when he pleaded guilty in Orange Local Court and put on a poker face and "showed no empathy".
She spoke of her anxiety and fears of being unfairly stigmatised and the trouble she now has going out in public and the constant feeling that people are talking about her and what happened.
The man's former step-daughter sobbed while giving her statement and took a brief moment to collect herself.
"I will never forget the moment I was told I was the victim of a crime," she said.
"From this moment I hit rock bottom.
"You made me scream and cry constantly, you brought so much pain to my family.
"You will never ever be forgiven for what you have done to all of us."
Others said the covert crimes had profound psychological impact, making them suspect the worst in everyone and believe "the world is bad."
"I I will stand tall no matter how much you try to chop me down ... the thrush this is this is who you are," one said.
The offending took place between late 2018 and March 2022 when he was arrested and refused bail.
Judge Penny Musgrave described it as a "profound breach of trust."
Up to his most recent court appearance last week he had spent 421 days in custody.
On March 23 this year, police searched a house and seized a laptop that was found to contain 18 images of child abuse material of pubescent girls.
From another property, police seized a USB drive with two child abuse images of pubescent girls and four videos of a teenage girl, a laptop with nine items depicting pubescent girls, they also found four videos of a teen girl on a USB.
A mobile phone accessed by the offender through the Kik app also contained child abuse material of pubescent and pre-pubescent victims.
Further investigation led to recovery of another USB with videos of females.
Judge Penny Musgrave will sentence the man next month in Bathurst District Court.
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