A Wollongong hairdresser has confessed to secretly filming his crush as he urinated next to him in a shopping centre bathroom.
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Dimitri Papodopulous, 44, told police he knew what he did inside the Wollongong Central toilet block on the afternoon on September 22 was wrong, but claimed he thought the victim had been "cruising" him.
"I thought maybe he liked me but didn't say anything," Papodopulous said during his police interview. "I know I did the wrong thing."
A set of agreed facts tendered to Wollongong Local Court this week said security cameras captured Papodopulous enter the toilet at the eastern end of the shopping centre about 1.25pm.
The victim, who works in the centre, entered the same toilet facility at 1.32pm and took the urinal next to Papodopulous.
The court heard Papodopulous held his mobile phone out in front of him and tilted it towards the victim and began filming him.
Papodopulous then replayed the video back to himself, with the victim telling police he knew it was a freshly shot video because he could hear the music from the toilet block on the footage.
The victim leaned towards Papodopulous, who was still holding the phone, and immediately recognised himself on the phone's screen.
"Were you recording me?" the victim asked, prompting Papodopulous to reply "no, I didn't".
"I just saw myself," the victim responded.
Papodopulous immediately left the bathroom. The victim reported the incident to the Wollongong Central security team, who contacted police.
Officers arrested Papodopulous later that afternoon at his Wollongong home. He initially denied taking the video, however later confessed to his crime, telling police "I know I shouldn't have recorded him, I knew it was the wrong thing to do".
Papadopulous said the victim "turned him on" and that he'd waited for him in the toilet block.
"I thought he liked me," he said.
"I deleted the video straight away. I would have looked at his private parts from the video but I got scared and deleted the video."
Papadopulous pleaded guilty to a charge of filming a person's private parts without consent.
He remains on bail and will face court for sentencing on January 18.
Read more Illawarra court and crime stories here.
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