Police allege the 20-year-old hid a camera in a soap dispenser to capture intimate recordings of women’s breasts inside an ADFA bathroom.<\/p>\n
Prosecutor Emma Bayliss told the court the alleged offending was “calculated and premeditated” and a “highly sophisticated operation”, with police locating a wireless transmitter, camera, SD card and power bank.<\/p>\n
The court heard Australian Federal Police seized two further recording devices during searches of Mr Stephens’s room and vehicle, with the prosecution alleging about 40,000 files had been identified across the devices.<\/p>\n
The prosecution also alleged 17 soap dispensers across the campus had been interfered with “in the same way”, although only one device had allegedly been located.<\/p>\n
Ms Bayliss said the investigation was still in its “very early stages” and alleged further charges could be laid once police completed reviewing the files.<\/p>\n
Accused tried to hide in waste cupboard<\/p>\n
The court heard Mr Stephens had allegedly been investigated by military police between January and March 2025, and was confronted by another cadet “about his behaviour” in October 2025.<\/p>\n
The prosecution further alleged Mr Stephens attempted to evade police by hiding in a “waste cupboard” before his arrest on Saturday morning.<\/p>\n
He also provided investigators with two incorrect passcodes when asked to unlock devices.<\/p>\n
![\"ACT](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/fe82c6dcc48e85cb75d0a6ae9c62e2d7.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
The court heard Tain Stephens was suspended from ADFA after he was charged with the alleged offences. (ABC News: Matt Roberts)<\/p>\n
Mr Stephens’s defence lawyer conceded the allegations “were concerning”, but proposed strict bail conditions essentially placing Mr Stephens under house arrest at his parents’ home in Ipswich, Queensland.<\/p>\n
The court heard Mr Stephens’s father had driven from Queensland to support his son and was willing to supervise him and transport him to court appearances.<\/p>\n
The defence argued Mr Stephens had no criminal history, and could be in custody on remand for a longer period of time than he would ultimately receive if convicted.<\/p>\n
The court heard Mr Stephens, who moved to Canberra in 2024, had been suspended from ADFA following the charges.<\/p>\n
Bail granted with strict conditions<\/p>\n
Special Magistrate Lucinda Wilson described the bail as a “borderline case” and said the court shared the prosecution’s concerns.<\/p>\n
However, she found Mr Stephens’s age, lack of criminal history and strong family support weighed in favour of bail.<\/p>\n
“Part of this could come down to maturity,” Magistrate Wilson said, describing how Mr Stephens turned 20 just weeks ago.<\/p>\n
“I think sending you to jail on remand for a period of time while investigations take place would be undue.”<\/p>\n
Mr Stephens was granted bail under strict conditions, including that he reside with his parents and remain at the home unless accompanied by them.<\/p>\n
He was also ordered to surrender his passport and not to use any device capable of recording images, video or accessing the internet.<\/p>\n
Additionally, he was ordered not to go within 100 metres of ADFA, the alleged victims, or any international departure point.<\/p>\n
In a statement, a spokesperson for the Australian Defence Force said ACT Policing was conducting an investigation at ADFA, and one person had been arrested and charged.<\/p>\n
“Defence has issued the individual with a Notice of Suspension from the Australian Defence Force,” the statement said.<\/p>\n
“Defence’s priority is to provide support to those who are potentially impacted. Additional support resources have been made available to ADFA personnel.<\/p>\n
“As this matter is now before the courts, Defence is unable to provide further comment.”<\/p>\n
The case will return to court in July.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An Australian Defence Force Academy (ADFA) cadet who allegedly used a hidden camera to film female cadets in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9028,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4817,4811,10377,22,10378,21,10380,2184,10381,10379,10382,5116,1047,10384,10383,10385],"class_list":{"0":"post-9027","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-australia","8":"tag-act","9":"tag-act-magistrates-court","10":"tag-adfa","11":"tag-au","12":"tag-australian-defence-force-academy","13":"tag-austrlia","14":"tag-bathroom","15":"tag-canberra","16":"tag-charged","17":"tag-hidden-camera","18":"tag-intimate-observations","19":"tag-local-stories","20":"tag-police","21":"tag-search-warrant","22":"tag-soap-dispenser","23":"tag-tain-stephens"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9027","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9027"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9027\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9028"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9027"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9027"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9027"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}