An AirBnBÂ host has pleaded guilty to storing and editing secretly recorded footage of 16 people staying at his holiday home.Â
Matthew Page, 63, appeared before Sydney Downing Centre on Thursday after admitting to setting up and hiding six cameras inside the AirBnB in Newport, on Sydney’s Northern Beaches.
The shocking plan came undone after one guest discovered one of the camera inside a bin in the bathroom and alerted police in January, 2023.
When confronted with the camera, Page told the guest and her partner ‘I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have done that. That was me, I did it’, the court heard.
The cameras were found to have recorded men, women and a 13-year-old girl in various levels of undress.
Page was charged with a number of recording intimate images without consent offences and one count of producing child abuse material.
His bail conditions were continued in October after he pleaded guilty to the charges and once again on Thursday with no objection by the Director of Public Prosecutions.
He is expected to return to court for sentencing in March.
The host of an AirBnB on Sydney’s Northern Beaches has admitted to secretly recording 16 of his guests with hidden cameras, including a 16-year-old girl (pictured, stock image)
Court documents revealed the guest found the hidden camera on the foot pedal of the bin, the Daily Telegraph reported.
She and her partner then contacted police and AirBnB support and started to pack up their belongings to leave when they were approached by Page who asked if everything was okay.
‘No, we found a hidden camera in the bathroom,’ the man told Page.
After telling them he was ‘sorry’ and that he ‘did it’, Page asked the couple: ‘did you call the cops?’
‘Yes, you should wait in the house, we’ll see you when the cops get here,’ the man told him.
Police arrived soon after and located the camera stuck to the base of the bin with Blu Tack.
Page initially denied all knowledge of the camera when questioned by police before a second search uncovered four pinhole cameras.
Police seized the equipment, a laptop, hard drives, USB sticks and an iPhone.
He strategically hid six cameras around the AirBnB so every part of its interior was recorded and was found to have edited the footage of his guests (pictured, Sydney Downing Centre)
The camera on the bin was found to have been connected to a central processor device which contained more than 150 files captured in five-minute intervals.
An investigation into the electronic devices uncovered edited videos from the six total cameras located to capture every internal section of the home.
Police identified 16 victims in the footage, including a 13-year-old girl who was staying at the home with her mother.
The court heard Page had run the AirBnB with his wife who had no knowledge of the sordid act and is not accused of any wrongdoing.
He remains on bail on the condition that he reports to police daily, lodge a $5,000 surety and not contact any former Airbnb guests.
