The family of a Warwick woman who had her privacy invaded by her housemate when she was secretly filmed for more than a year has spoken out on the traumatic toll inflicted on her, and why the perpetrator should have received a harsher sentence.
Angus William Gale busted adjusting a camera he used to obsessively monitor and spy on a housemate.
The three family members, who wish to remain anonymous, spoke exclusively to NewsCorp to voice their feelings on the matter and give the woman a voice following the sentencing of a man who terrorised her and “made her afraid to be in her own home”.
The man – Angus William Gale – was sentenced on June 8, pleading guilty to one count of observation or recording in breach of privacy in Warwick Magistrates Court. Magistrate Andrew Cridland gave him 18 months’ release under supervision. No convictions were recorded in the matter.
The family however aren’t happy with the sentence the 21-year-old received, saying it was a “slap on the wrist.”
On Thursday, the court was told how Gale would “monitor” the woman, observing her in the bathroom, sleeping and changing in both her room as well as the toilet, through hidden spy cameras, and phones hidden just out of view.
The moment an offender came undone: Angus William Gale caught on his own surveillance camera he had installed in a young woman’s room, he had been watching her for months. (Photo: Supplied)
The obsessive and disturbing nature of the offending continued for a period of 20 months, from January 2021 to September 2022, in which it was apparent Gale would be “checking in” on the woman.
On one occasion, when the woman found a hidden camera watching her every move while cleaning her bedroom, within minutes, Gale had sent her a message asking if he had seen his camera, and that “his brother put it in the wrong room to charge”.
The family refutes these claims and believes that he was actively monitoring his victim through the camera, and wanted to mitigate the fallout.
“The only way he would have known that she had found the camera was if he was streaming it and looking at her,” a member of the family said.
Discovery
One woman in the family described the offending as “disgusting” and said they knew something was not quite right with the victim.
“We’d been watching her for months, and she just didn’t look right, she didn’t want to eat, she was that terrified in her own home,” a woman close to the victim said.
“She would jump in and out of the shower as quick as possible, because she was scared as one day the lock ‘mysteriously’ broke.
“It was heartbreaking. We were all asking ‘what’s going on? Are you okay?’ I knew that day something was wrong due to the look on her face,” another woman said.
Gale’s offending was so severe, it caused the woman to live in terror and barricaded herself in her room (Photo: file)
After 20 months of her privacy being violated, the woman finally told her family about the most recent incident, in which a phone was placed by Gale on her windowsill after she had finished a shower.
“She was terrified to tell us, she was frightened at what would have happened. We told her that she had to go to the police station at 9.30 in the morning with her phone and computer and we were going to do it the right way,” the family member said.
After months of suffering in silence, it became apparent that the terror of living with no privacy and being “monitored” became too much.
The family said the woman had cutlery under her bed to ensure she didn’t have to eat outside and was forced to put a towel behind the door, to see if it had moved in the middle of the night.
The woman hid in her room until she believed Gale was asleep to cook and eat, out of sheer terror.
What’s next
The family said the woman has moved on from the horrific period of her life, and is on the slow road to recovery.
“She’s doing a lot better now, all things considered. She has a strong family unit around her that would do anything for her, and she is living in a new, safer environment,” one of the women said.
Angus Gale, 21, outside Warwick Magistrates Court.
“She feels safe and secure now and she does her own thing, she still is terrified of him and didn’t want to go to any of the court cases.
“She has her good and bad days, like anyone I suppose, but it was a long ordeal for such a young girl, and to keep it inside for all those months, it really messes with your head,” another woman said.
“I’m just so proud of her to have copied that (camera footage) as evidence, I was so proud she was onto it and how smart she was, because otherwise we would have had no physical evidence.
“She is so strong to overcome what he did, he traumatised my baby.”