South West man Anthony Robert Floyd, 57, recorded step-daughter in bathroom, had child exploitation material

A 57-year-old South West man has avoided jail for using a GoPro to record his teenage stepdaughter and possessing child exploitation material but has been made a reportable offender. Anthony Robert Floyd appeared in Bunbury District Court last Monday, where he was handed a nine-month jail term that was conditionally suspended for 14 months after pleading guilty to possessing child exploitation material. He was also handed a further seven month jail term that was suspended for 12 months by the Bunbury Magistrate’s Court after he was convicted of using an optical surveillance to record a private activity of which he was not a party. The court was told Floyd’s former partner reviewed footage from the external CCTV cameras of their Australind home on September 22, last year when she came across footage of Floyd setting up a GoPro camera looking into her daughter’s bedroom, only to retrieve the GoPro several minutes later. When Floyd’s ex-partner confronted him, he admitted he had placed the camera outside and that it was a one-off event. After also admitting to filming his step-daughter in the bathroom but deleting the footage after watching it in a separate incident, Floyd’s ex-partner told him to leave the house. The following day, Floyd’s ex-partner and her daughter went to Australind Police Station to report the matter when Floyd returned to the house to retrieve some property. After observing his step-daughter’s car in the driveway, Floyd turned around to leave and drove past the police station when he saw his then-partner’s car outside. Floyd then decided to hand himself in to police, admitting to officers he also had electronic devices at the home which may contain child exploitation material. A search was then conducted with police seizing 19 USBs and three external hard drives, with 266 images and a video deemed to be child exploitation material found on one of the hard drives. The material found contained images and a 44 second video, mainly depicting other female children of various ages. In submissions, Floyd’s defence counsel Seamus Rafferty told the court his client began viewing child exploitation material in 2021 developing an interest for the material but had no intention of “translating from the ‘fantasy world’ to engage in a specific conduct with children”. Mr Rafferty also submitted Floyd’s admission of possessing child exploitation material when he turned himself in to police was indicative of his remorse and had since engaged in psychological counselling that will likely continue for the rest of his life. “Had he not told them, this offence may well have gone up completely and utterly undetected,” he said. “He realises this isn’t like getting a cough, this isn’t like getting the flu. “It’s not something that just stops. “It’s an interest, it’s there. It has manifested itself in this behaviour. “He now has to manage that problem and it’s something that he has to deal with for the rest of his life because the interest doesn’t go away.” While it was accepted there was no suggestion that Floyd was engaged in disseminating the material, District Court Judge Nicholas Egan said there was no question that his offending was serious. While being sentenced in the Magistrates Court, Magistrate Leanne Atkins said that Floyd “destroyed the life of his stepdaughter in the most unacceptable way.” “I don’t know if you’re ashamed, but you really ought to be.”