An aspiring rap artist from Farmborough Heights has been found guilty of an attempting upskirting charge after he was caught trying to film a scantily dressed woman on an early morning South Coast train.
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Derek Quiros, 35, who goes by the stage name DAK and has been featured on Triple J Unearthed, was heading home from a night out in the city when he used his mobile phone to video the woman as she and a male friend slept on a seat in the early hours of March 25 last year.
The video, played during Quiros' court hearing in February, showed the camera was focused specifically on the woman's thigh and lower buttock area, which was visible due to the short length of her shorts.
The train's guard noticed the odd behaviour on the carriage's camera system and notified police, who spoke with Quiros when the train pulled into Wollongong Railway Station.
Quiros immediately fessed up to taking the video, saying "I'm so stupid, I shouldn't have done it. I've had a few drinks in the city. It was one of those opportunistic moments, it's not like me".
However, he pleaded not guilty to a charge, claiming he had not shot the video for sexual gratification. Magistrate Mark Douglass found otherwise.
"I draw the inference without any hesitation the video was taken for his own sexual gratification," he said.
The court heard Quiros was currently suspended from his sales role with Australian Community Media, publisher of the Illawarra Mercury, and would likely lose his job as a result of the court case.
Magistrate Douglass found the case was low in objective seriousness and dismissed the charge without a conviction on the condition Quiros enter into an 18-month good behaviour bond.