A Victoria man who made videos up women’s skirts at a Cook Street deli and made nude recordings of his neighbours has received a nine-month conditional sentence followed by two years of probation.
Tomislav Mlinar pleaded guilty last week to using his iPhone in July 2014 to make videos, for a sexual purpose, taken under the skirts of female customers at Mother Nature’s Market and Deli in the Cook Street Village.
Mlinar also pleaded guilty to making video recordings of five women who were nude or partially nude who lived in an apartment building across the street. The offences took place between June 1, 2013, and July 23, 2014.
B.C. Supreme Court Justice Keith Bracken accepted a joint submission by the Crown and defence, but called the sentence light.
“The allegations are serious. The impact is clearly demonstrated in the victim-impact statements. All of them expressed views of the violation of their privacy, violation of their personal space, antagonism toward males, the feeling of insecurity within their own homes,” Bracken said, noting that some of the women still live near Mlinar.
“The sentence is a light one, but it takes into account the risks of a trial and having evidence that is compelling and real excluded on principles of the charter.”
Crown prosecutor Clare Jennings told the court that on July 7, 2014, a market employee saw Mlinar place an iPhone on a video setting in a backpack facing up. She saw him approach women in the store who were wearing skirts and dresses and place his backpack very close to their legs.
The employee told other staff members what Mlinar was doing. Mlinar left the store, but returned shortly after 5 p.m. When other employees saw him doing the same thing, they called police.
Victoria police found Mlinar outside a nearby coffee shop. They asked to see his phone, Jennings said. Mlinar agreed, but when he unlocked his phone, he immediately started deleting photos, saying they were intimate ones of his girlfriend.
Officers looked at the phone and found the up-skirt photographs. They arrested Mlinar.
Police got a warrant to examine the phone. They found a video taken on July 7, 2014, showing Mlinar’s face and the market behind him. It also found photographs taken up the skirts of two women in the store.
There were other images that concerned police, Jennings said. They got another warrant for Mlinar’s house, where he has lived alone since the death of his mother in December 2013. On Aug. 7, 2014, they seized all of Mlinar’s computers and digital memory devices.
Police discovered Mlinar had been recording women in the apartment building across the street through their windows, Jennings said. In some of the videos, the women are naked or undressing. In other videos, they’re not naked but they are in places where they have a reasonable expectation of privacy, she said.
In at least one video, Mlinar can be heard saying: “Take it off. Take it off,” Jennings said.
“Once police saw the videos, they had to go to the apartment building and interview the women in the videos,” she said. “All of them had to watch the videos that had been taken of them in their homes. The women felt violated and angry.”
Defence lawyer Peter Blokmanis told the court that his client has no criminal record and has been on strict bail for two years with no problems. Mlinar has lived in Victoria his whole life and has stable employment as a stock man for a food company. His employer is aware of the circumstances, Blokmanis said. He has also expressed remorse.
Bracken ordered the forfeiture of Mlinar’s laptop, camcorder, memory sticks and cellphones.
Mlinar must have no contact with the five women and must stay on his side of the street, Bracken said. During this conditional sentence, Mlinar must observe a 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew.
He is not allowed to have any cellphone, pager or telecommunication device with a camera. His cellphone must be examined by a police officer. He is also forbidden from owning a telescope or binoculars.
Mlinar must attend counselling — including forensic assessment through the Forensic Psychiatric Assessment Centre in Victoria — as directed by his probation officer.
