Williams wore a camera on his shoe and targeted women in dresses so he could capture “upskirted” images of them.
Some victims were colleagues at a former workplace. Others were unknowingly filmed as they walked around Nelson.
In another instance, he filmed a man using the toilet and then taking a shower.
‘Capable of outrageous lies’
During Williams’ sentencing in the Nelson District Court today, Judge Tony Snell said it was apparent that Williams had been secretly filming people for years.
He had been caught but was never prosecuted and had gone on to re–offend.
Judge Snell described Williams as “highly manipulative and capable of outrageous lies”.
In many instances, he filmed himself turning the camera on and off, which is what led the police to him when the camera was handed in.
Williams, who appeared to sob frequently throughout the hearing, will be banned from returning to the Nelson region, following his release from a two-and-a-half-year prison term.
Judge Snell said that the “crocodile tears” he once shed, pretending to care for one of his victims before it was known he was the offender, demonstrated the “manipulative and nasty person” he was.
Hearts ‘shattered’
The 40-year-old was sentenced on charges of knowingly making an objectionable publication, four charges of making an intimate visual recording, burglary and two representative charges of possessing an intimate visual recording.
The charges related to video footage police found in Williams’ possession, involving three victims from one family Williams knew, and 20 other victims whom the police could not identify.
One of three known victims said in a highly charged delivery of her victim impact statement that the toll taken by the discovery had been “profound”.
“Our hearts are shattered and fear has consumed us. We no longer feel safe in our home.”
She added the sense of betrayal had been overwhelming, and she remained haunted by the thought of how long Williams might have been filming them.
“The hurt and anger you have caused is impossible to describe,” she said tearfully.
Crown prosecutor Jackson Webber said there were “numerous” aggravating features to Williams’ offending, including the high degree of pre-meditation and planning.
He watched his victims for months and devised an exit strategy for if he was caught.
Defence lawyer Michael Vesty said Williams accepted the great deal of violation felt by the victims, and that the shockwaves had gone way beyond him to his family and extended family.
Hidden camera
On a night in October last year, Williams went to the victims’ address, opened a bathroom window and placed a camera on the windowsill inside.
At 6am the next morning, he recorded a young girl, known as victim one, as she went about her morning routine.
She saw the gooseneck, adjustable camera and threw it out the window, thinking it was a “walkie talkie”. Her parents retrieved it from the garden, and called the police.
An initial download revealed six media files containing three videos stored on an SD card, one of which was 20 minutes long and showed a child unknowingly exposing herself while showering and drying herself.
Once the camera had been found, but before Williams was identified, he spoke with one of the victims, saying he was “sorry” such a thing had happened to them. He even began to tear up, and hug the victim, the police summary of facts said.
He suggested others as the culprits then asked the victim how her husband was coping because “the role of a father is to protect your kids, and, in this situation, he hasn’t been able to”.
Judge Snell said that comment made the father a victim, also.
He said Williams’ “predatory, invasive and horrible offending” for his own voyeuristic sexual gratification had had terrible consequences, for those that knew about it.
‘Predatory, stalking behaviour’
On November 11 last year police searched Williams’ home and found items, including clothing, that matched what was seen in one of the videos.
Police said the camera and SD card were sent to a digital forensic unit for further examination, which revealed deleted items including more video files of the family’s bathroom from different camera angles, while another was a video of victim one walking into her bedroom, wrapped in a towel.
The discovery that many others had been secretly filmed followed the seizure of electronic items during the search of Williams’ home on November 11.
Included among the items were three “exhibits” containing 38 videos and one “image of interest”.
Twenty-seven of the 38 videos found were captured from the camera on Williams’ shoe, of which 11 were “upskirting” videos.
In one instance, he spent a minute doing this, and in another, he spent almost half an hour filming 16 women walking around Nelson, aged from young teens to adults.
Police said Williams’ targeting of four victims, who were captured on “multiple occasions” after they were followed, showed “predatory, stalking behaviour”.
The videos, which ranged in length, showed unknown bathrooms and a person using a shower in a cubicle with no door and a toilet.
In one video Williams captured himself setting up the camera in a bathroom and calling out “the bathroom’s free” as a teenage girl walked in, turned on the shower and got undressed. The video stopped before she got out.
Judge Snell said that Williams, if left untreated, presented a high risk of re–offending.
He was automatically registered as a child sex offender.
Tracy Neal is a Nelson-based Open Justice reporter at NZME. She was previously RNZ’s regional reporter in Nelson-Marlborough and has covered general news, including court and local government for the Nelson Mail.
