sick threats | 

Taxi driver secretly filmed his lodger in the shower and harassed her for months

Wang had hidden the phone in a laundry basket, balanced on clothes at the foot of the bathtub, the court heard.

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A man who secretly filmed his lodger while she was showering and then harassed her for months has been put in prison to “think about what he did” while a judge considers his sentence.

Le Wang (42) of Balally Drive, Dundrum, Dublin 16, pleaded guilty to harassing a foreign student over three months between December 2022 and March 2023.

At a sitting of Dublin Circuit Criminal Court today, Judge Martin Nolan remanded Wang in custody for a fortnight pending sentence.

“I want him to look about him and think about what he did in the meantime,” said Judge Nolan, noting that Wang had videoed the woman twice in the shower and was attempting to do it a third time when the woman noticed the phone.

Wang had hidden the phone in a laundry basket, balanced on clothes at the foot of the bathtub, the court heard.

Judge Nolan said that when confronted, Wang implied threats to disclose the videos and harassed the young woman for three months, which had been very distressing for her.

The court heard that the woman had arrived in Ireland from China in 2021 to study and was offered a room to rent in Wang’s house.

Garda Paul Kane told Jane Murphy BL, prosecuting, that the woman paid €950 for her first month’s rent in December 2022.

She told gardaí that when she moved in, Wang started to text her every day, asking her things like what she was up to and whether she would like to go to a bar. He also asked her to let him know when she wanted to have a shower, the court heard.

On December 20, 2022, the woman was in the bathroom getting ready to have a shower when she noticed the accused’s mobile phone balancing on clothes in the laundry basket.

She immediately brought it to the attention of Wang’s wife, who said her husband must have put it there by accident and gave it back to him.

Garda Kane said the videos had been deleted and then restored, and photos had been screenshotted from them and shared to Wang’s own WeChat app.

Wang has no previous convictions.

A victim impact statement was handed to the judge but was not read aloud.

A psychological report described Wang as extremely introverted and said his childhood had been “devoid of emotional expression”.

Judge Nolan remarked that there were plenty of introverted people in the world and that this was neither a mitigating nor an aggravating factor.

Counsel said Wang had made “an utter fool of himself” and put his marriage and his employment at risk. The court heard that the psychological report placed Wang at a low risk of recidivism.

“He’s a man who’s learnt his lesson,” said counsel, submitting letters from Wang and his wife to court.

Wang will be sentenced on May 16.