Australian women fear for their safety after the judicial machinery rewarded a Vietnamese student with no prison time for secretly filming many women in toilets and showers.
The Noticer reported on March 6 that 23-year-old Bao Phuc Cao, a Vietnamese national who is a medical student at Melbourne University, was arrested for secretly filming 150 women in restrooms. But he struck a plea deal with the authorities and pled guilty to only one charge of upskirting a woman in February last year.
Cao has been previously charged with similar offenses and is thus a serial voyeur who films his targets. But every time he was caught doing it, he was spared conviction. It happened this time too. Magistrate Michelle Myktywoycz sentenced him to just a good behavior bond without conviction.
Women on social media have called out this enabling role of the judiciary as outrageous.
Melbourne Uni med student Bao Phuc Cao, 23, caught upskirting & secretly filming up to 150 women in toilets/showers at Docklands & his accommodation.
He pleaded guilty, yet NO conviction, just a community order. One day this creep could be your doctor.
This is outrageous! 😡 pic.twitter.com/vuPgGXLDUs
— katy 🌸 (@KatyKray73) March 9, 2026
Media didn’t give Cao a free pass.
A serial sex creep is back on the streets tonight after he escaped conviction for a third time for up-skirting women in public spaces. @amberjohnston_9 #9News pic.twitter.com/go5mmidb8H
— 9News Melbourne (@9NewsMelb) March 13, 2026
