A Vietnamese medical student at Melbourne University who was caught secretly filming young women in showers and toilets has been spared jail and a conviction twice.
Bao Phuc Cao, 23, who is studying to be a neurosurgeon, was first arrested for filming a female student at RoomingKos student accommodation in the city’s CBD after his victim saw his mobile phone under her shower cubicle.
Police then found hundreds of photos and videos of up to 150 other women, Nine News reported.
Cao was charged and pleaded guilty, but was spared a conviction, ordered to complete a sex offenders program, and given a Community Corrections Order.
He was then arrested again for secretly filming women in public toilets at District Docklands shopping centre, again pleaded guilty, and was again spared a conviction.
Melbourne University said privacy rules prevented them from revealing if Cao is still a student, but that they were “committed to eliminating and preventing sexual misconduct from our community and have robust systems and supports in place for our students and staff”.
“Any experience of assault, sexual assault and sexual harassment within our university community is unacceptable,” a spokesperson said.
Anti-violence campaigner Sherele Moody from the Red Heart Campaign said Cao’s crimes were not victimless.
“Every one of those women have had their privacy invaded. It also means that if he does go on to become a doctor or a surgeon, his patients are not going to know what he’s been up to and what he could potentially get up to,” she said.
“How many women have to be subjected to a perpetrator of this type of crime, and he literally gets away with it. How safe are the female students at that university right now?”
Header image: Left, Bao Phuc Cao. Right, the student accommodation building (Nine News).
