The victim of a biomedical student busted for secretly filming women in public toilets is now fearful of her safety and can no longer use public restrooms.
The woman is among an unknown number of victims, who university student Bao Phuc Cao recorded without permission in intimate settings in public facilities.
The 23-year-old was found with more than 100 videos on his phone but authorities are unsure if they're all of the same or different victims, Melbourne Magistrates Court was told today.
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The woman had gone into the public toilets at Chipmunks Playland and Cafe Docklands on February 20, 2025, and saw there was one other person in an adjoining cubicle.
As she used the toilet, she noticed an iPhone being held close to the wall near the cubicle and that it was recording.
The woman became scared and panicked at the sight of the recording, leaving the toilets to call security who found Cao in the toilet cubicle.
Magistrate Michelle Mykytowycz read the woman's victim impact statement and described how Cao's offending had a profound impact on the complainant.
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"She remains anxious, unsurprisingly she is hypervigilant," the magistrate said.
The woman's sense of safety has been and continues to be affected, impacting her ability to use the restroom in the office and in public, she added.
"These concerns are the long-term effects of your offending," Mykytowycz said.
On Friday, Cao was sentenced to a 12-month adjourned undertaking without conviction where he must be of good behaviour and comply with his previous community corrections order.
The offender had been sentenced twice before receiving a community corrections order — in July 2025 on the same matter and May 2025 relating to an incident in October 2024.
Under the principle of totality, the magistrate said his charge today should have been bundled with his previous sentencing as it would have been unlikely to have impacted his prior sentence.
Mykytowycz took into account his guilty plea, youth and that he has no family in Australia, but described the offending as very serious and the complainant was entitled to feel safe.
"Your offending was not of a physical nature but of the most intimate kind in a public toilet," she said.
"Court has to send a message to the community that they denounce this offending and (reinforce) the protection of women who are entitled and must feel safe in public utilities."
The court was told Cao's phone used in the offending will be returned to him after authorities figure out how to delete all its contents.
He left the court a free man and was bundled away from the chasing media pack by the son of a man who was jailed in a separate case heard before Cao's sentencing.
