An technician who stole more than 80 explicit photos from multiple women’s phones while connecting their homes to the NBN has been spared time behind bars.
Aydin Agar, 25, was sentenced to 16 months home detention for stealing the images, which included lingerie snaps, nude pictures and a video of a woman engaged in a sex act.
He was heckled outside of Downing Centre Local Court on Monday afternoon with a reporter asking, ‘You don’t want to show your face but you’re happy to look at [women’s] photos?’
Aydin Agar (pictured on Monday outside of Sydney’s Downing Centre) pleaded guilty to stealing private and explicit images off female customers’ phones
Agar told the women he needed access to their devices to connect them to Wifi and then accessed their image galleries.
He then sent himself the images while they weren’t looking and deleted any trace of outgoing messages from their devices.
Agar was only caught when one of the women noticed that a private image had been accessed and opened.
He also assaulted one of the victims who noticed what he’d done during a second visit to her home. He pushed and shoved her while attempting to snatch her phone and run away.
Mannon White, who was one of the women from whom Agar stole intimate photos, told 9NEWS reporters she felt violated.
‘They were private, explicitly sensitive images that you wouldn’t share with absolutely anyone except for with a partner or someone you extremely trust,’ she shared.
Agar tried to avoid media outside the Downing Centre Local Court after sentencing on Monday
One of the women from whom Agar stole intimate photos, told reporters that she felt violated
Magistrate Jennifer Atkinson says his actions were a complete abuse of trust and caused significant emotional harm.
‘This is completely and utterly unacceptable,’ she told Agar in court. ‘The fear somebody has that these images are going to be spread around the world is enormous – it’s absolutely awful.’
Ms Atkinson stressed that while he wasn’t being sent to prison his behaviour did deserve a jail term.
During sentencing, she said, ‘He abused the women’s trust and inflicted substantial emotional harm on the victims who lived in fear their sensitive private images would be spread around the world,’ she said during sentencing.
The former NBN installer told women he needed access to their phones to connect to the Wi-Fi
Aydin Agar’s lawyer (centre) pushed for home detention rather than time spent behind bars
Agar’s lawyer pushed for home detention rather than jail time, arguing that he had already been punished with the loss of his $2000 a week job.
In addition to serving his 16-month term in the community by way of an intensive correction order, he is also reportedly addressing his behaviour in therapy.
Meanwhile, a recent survey by the eSafety Commission showed one in five Australian women aged 18-45 suffered image-based abuse.