Phillip Antony Best avoids jail despite guilty verdict after recording naked teen changing in beach toilet

A former City of Bunbury Surf Living Club youth development officer and life member has narrowly avoided jail despite being found guilty of recording a naked 15-year-old girl who was changing in a public toilet. Phillip Antony Best, 60, was convicted after a jury found him guilty of one charge of indecently recording a child younger than 16 but older than 13, in Bunbury District Court on Friday afternoon following a five-day trial. It took the jury about two hours to reach their verdict. The incident occurred at the public toilet block just south of the City of Bunbury Surf Life Saving Club on Ocean Drive on October 8, 2022, with Best having access as a City of Bunbury contracted plumber. The jury accepted prosecutor Gary Huggins’ argument Best had climbed up in a maintenance room between the female and male toilets, before taking footage of the 15-year-old girl while she was changing out of her bikini. “We know (the victim) went to the female toilets to get changed ... and she saw a phone,” he said. “We know it must have been held by someone in the maintenance room. It was Mr Best in the maintenance room at the time.” The defence claimed Best went into the room attempting to look into the male toilets because he thought the victim’s 14-year-old boyfriend, who had gone into the male toilets at the same time, was potentially dodgy. Mr Huggins described Best’s claim about what he did in the room as “absolute rubbish”. He told the court Best must have known he was spotted coming out of the door and highlighted the evidence of the complainant and three other teenagers who all said Best had denied he had a phone when initially asked, alongside Best’s admission he had lied about why he was in the maintenance room. “They were deliberate lies ... he knew his phone had been spotted,” Mr Huggins said. “It was the same phone (the complainant) had seen earlier. “He clearly deleted what was a highly incriminating image on his phone.” Mr Huggins said the defence’s claim long-time friend and nearby off-duty officer Sen. Const. Gary Carthew and ex-wife Julie Kelly both had incorrect recollections of Best making admissions were “fanciful”. Sen. Const. Carthew said in his evidence Best told him “I saw one of the girls go into a cubicle, I put my phone over the top and took a photo”, while Ms Kelly said Best told her “I’ve done a silly thing and I’m about to be arrested. I’ve taken a picture of a girl and I’m about to be taken to the station”. Defence counsel Michael Devlin said if Best had recorded the complainant, he would have permanently deleted the items. “You will see the video that was taken of the interaction (between the teenagers and Mr Best),” he said. “What did the girls see in that image? Was it the male toilets that the girls assumed was the female toilet? “It will be a matter for you to decide if what they saw was an image of (the victim) naked in a female cubicle. “On the totality of the evidence, we would say when you look at this, you are left with a reasonable doubt.” The jury heard from Best himself when he took to the witness box on Thursday, telling the court he arrived at his worksite at the club about 8.30am, but a fellow club life member who was supposed to assist him was unable to help. He said he interacted with a number of passersby and after about the 10th person, “it became very frustrating” because he was “trying to do my work,” Best said. He told the court he had heard a young male — the victim’s boyfriend — swearing and it had caught his attention. “This young male had bothered me. I assumed he was of a demographic ... these kids damage the toilet, vandalise things,” Best said. He claimed he saw the boyfriend walking into the men’s toilet and wanted to see what he was doing, so he walked into the maintenance room between the male and female toilets and climbed up to a higher point in the room. Best told the court his phone was at one point on the brick wall of the female toilet as he was in the maintenance room, before he “transferred the phone” to his hand to take a picture of the male toilet. “(I) went to take a photo of the male toilets, then realised it was recording (a video) and stopped,” Best said. He then claimed he took a photo of the male toilets and climbed back down to ground level, where he looked at both the video and image and deleted them. When asked if he had a photo of the female toilets, Best responded “no, I do not”. He said he was approached by a group of girls about what they claimed occurred, and he said he handed over his phone. “(One of the girls) looks at the photo roll first, she scrolls all the way down and scrolled into recently deleted, which I didn’t know existed,” Best said. He denied the prosecution’s claim he initially refused to hand over his phone, along with evidence from Sen. Const. Carthew and Ms Kelly that he had made confessions to both of them. But under cross examination, he did admit he had lied to police in a video record interview about not going into the maintenance room, and to the victim and at least two other teenagers about why he had gone into the room. After Best was convicted, Mr Devlin told the court his client had “lived and worked in the Bunbury area for nearly the entirety of his life” and he had been diagnosed with ADHD and was now taking medication to treat the condition. Mr Devlin described Best’s decision as “absolutely regrettable” and highlighted how he had his plumbing licence suspended as a result of “almost wall-to-wall” media coverage of the case since the incident. “The conviction will have a lasting impact on his ability to engage in the community,” he said. After Mr Huggins suggested Best receive an immediate prison term, Mr Devlin suggested Judge Tory Sweeney instead make it a suspended imprisonment order. Judge Sweeney agreed with the defence, handing Best a 12-month imprisonment conditionally suspended for 18 months. She said Best had left the victim distressed and with issues using public toilets. “You saw this teenage girl earlier on the beach and I am satisfied you find her attractive,” Judge Sweeney said. “Seeing her enter the toilet, you entered the maintenance duct. “She was in a cubicle getting undressed ... when she saw the camera from above.” Judge Sweeney told the court she accepted the evidence of one of the teenage witnesses that multiple images and/or videos were taken and the teenagers “were clear on what they’ve seen”. She also took aim at Best’s credibility as a witness when questioned about his confessions to Sen. Const. Gary Carthew and Ms Kelly, during which he claimed he told both he had only been accused of taking a picture of a girl. “I noticed ... that you found it very uncomfortable in denying the evidence of Mr Carthew and your ex-wife,” Judge Sweeney said. A mandatory violence restraining order was also made against Best to protect the victim, preventing him from being within 50m of her residence or 25m of her in other circumstances for the rest of his life.