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Tegan was sitting alone on a Sydney train. And then she realised she was being filmed.

UPDATE: Four days after Tegan posted the video of a man filming her on the train to Newcastle, a 30-year-old Cessnock man has been formally charged in relation this crime.

He was arrested this morning at his Mitchell Close home. He’s been charged with with filming a person’s private parts without consent and offensive conduct. He’s been released on conditional bail.

His mobile phone and hard drive have been confiscated for investigating and he is set to appear before the Toronto Local Court on 20 April. 

Mamamia previously reported… 

A female victim of upskirting on public transport has taken to Facebook to try and identify the perpetrator.

22-year-old Tegan Portener was travelling by train from Sydney’s Central Station to Newcastle last week when she realised she was being unwillingly filmed on the mobile phone of an unknown male passenger sitting in front of her.

“This grub got on the train at Central and sat directly in front of me,” Portener wrote in a Facebook post accompanying her video. “He kept looking around suspiciously but I ignored it.”

Portener says she had been asleep when the filming began and only noticed the man’s phone upon waking.

“I woke up from a nap with my knees up in shorts and noticed he was filming me from underneath his chair,” Portener wrote.

The man lodged his phone underneath the chair back to try and secretly film Portener. Source: Facebook.

“He did it for another half hour until I finally mustered up the courage to tell him to stop,” she continued.

Based on the video footage Portener was able to capture, it’s clear the man was keen to go to any length to try and film whatever he could.

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Towards of the end of the video, Portener can be heard asking the man twice “excuse me, what are you doing with your phone?” while he stares at her blankly.

“You keep putting it underneath the chair,” Portener continues. “What are you doing with it? Why are you sliding it under the chair and aiming it at me?”

The man continues to say nothing, but shakes his head, looking terrified before the video cuts out.

The man was seen moving the phone around at several points throughout the minute-long video captured by Portener. Source: Facebook

Following the confrontation, Portener wrote that she approached the train driver, who then contacted police. Unfortunately, the man had already left the train.

Her video footage with a clear image of the man has been handed to police and is being investigated.

“I gave them these videos and they went through surveillance cams but couldn’t find him,” Portener wrote. “So the grot is still out there potentially filming other women ugh.”

The video has been viewed over 400,000 times and shared almost 5,000 times since being uploaded on Monday.

How long will it take for men to realise that women do not exist in public spaces as props for their consumption?

Catching public transport shouldn’t be an unsafe thing for anybody to do, irrespective of gender.

If you see someone acting suspiciously, don’t wait to act. Move away as soon as possible and approach the driver.

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