A former Queensland police sergeant acted in “absolute disgrace” to his uniform when he secretly filmed a teenager while she was in the shower and took pictures under another’s skirt, a judge has said.<\/p>\n
Stephen Michael Calcutt pleaded guilty in the Ipswich District Court today to three charges of recording in breach of privacy, and two charges of possessing child exploitation material.<\/p>\n
The court heard the 55-year-old, who had been part of the police for more than two decades, had also filmed a masseuse without her consent while she performed an erotic massage on him.<\/p>\n
Crown Prosecutor Lauren Knobel told the court all the offences occurred in early 2024, when Calcutt was still a police officer \u2014 but said he had since left the service.<\/p>\n
The court heard Calcutt had purchased the spy cameras off Amazon and set them up in a shower.<\/p>\n
He then took several stills from the recorded vision, which focused on several of the body parts of a girl who was under 18.<\/p>\n
“The defendant viewed and utilised the video for his own sexual gratification,” Ms Knobel told the court.<\/p>\n
If you or anyone you know needs help:<\/p>\n
Victim left feeling ‘uncomfortable and unsafe’<\/p>\n
In a victim impact statement read to the court by Ms Knobel, the girl stated she had issues with work and feared going to places alone since the offending occurred.<\/p>\n
“I feel uncomfortable and unsafe going to new places in fear there will be cameras, or my privacy be invaded,” the statement said.<\/p>\n
Both teenagers were present in court for the sentencing proceeding \u2014 though one, who was filmed in the shower, left halfway through proceedings.<\/p>\n
The other girl, who had images taken up her skirt, also tendered a victim impact statement to the court.<\/p>\n
“You turned my world upside down,” the statement said.<\/p>\n
“You’re a man of power, a police officer, someone I thought was there to protect. But you didn’t protect me.<\/p>\n
“You used that power to tear apart my sense of safety and question everything I once believed about trust.”<\/p>\n
She said what Calcutt did was “not just an invasion of space, but it’s an invasion of my soul”.<\/p>\n
“You stole the very essence of who I am, the ability to feel secure, the ability to be free in my own skin.<\/p>\n
“I can no longer let anyone close to me.”<\/p>\n
Calcutt looked straight ahead and showed no emotion as the statements were read out.<\/p>\n
Actions ‘disgusting and revolting’, judge says<\/p>\n
Ms Knobel told the court when police searched Calcutt’s phone and hard drives, which were found during a search of his Springfield Lakes home, they found 30 cartoon images of children in sexual situations in a folder called “lollie”.<\/p>\n
A story about a 10-year-old being raped by an adult male was also found saved to Calcutt’s Snapchat account as part of a conversation with an unknown person.<\/p>\n
Calcutt’s defence barrister Kate Juhasz submitted to the court he should only have to serve 240 hours of community service and be subject to a three-year probation with no conviction recorded.<\/p>\n
She said Calcutt had been diagnosed with post traumatic stress disorder and a major depression disorder, and has had suicidal ideations in the past.<\/p>\n
She submitted he had experienced “public humiliation” as a result of media reports around the case.<\/p>\n
Judge Craig Chowdhury ultimately sentenced Calcutt to 12 months in prison, suspended after three months.<\/p>\n
Calcutt will also be subject to a two year probation order when released.<\/p>\n
Judge Chowdhury said Calcutt’s actions were “disgusting and revolting” and there was obviously “premeditation involved”.<\/p>\n
“The main cause of the offending was to get perverted sexual gratification,” Judge Chowdhury said.<\/p>\n
“Any police officer would understand the gravity of child pornography.<\/p>\n
“They’d also understand the harm caused to innocent victims recorded without their knowledge.<\/p>\n
“It is an absolute disgrace, there’s no question. It’s a disgrace to the uniform, to the standing of the Queensland Police Service.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A former Queensland police sergeant acted in “absolute disgrace” to his uniform when he secretly filmed a teenager…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":165919,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,48574,1108,73496,23126,44,109136,94,701,109135],"class_list":["post-165918","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-child-exploitation-material","tag-court","tag-district-court","tag-filming","tag-news","tag-police-sergeant","tag-qld","tag-queensland","tag-stephen-calcutt"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165918","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=165918"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165918\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/165919"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=165918"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=165918"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=165918"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}