A witness who was the security officer at the New Zealand Embassy in Washington, DC, was unaware what a small black device was when it was handed to her, she told a courtroom today at the trial of former embassy official Alfred Keating.
The Brickhouse micro camera had been discovered on an embassy toilet floor just minutes earlier on the afternoon of July 27, 2017.
Keating, who was New Zealand's defence attaché at the time, is charged with attempting to make an intimate visual recording in the embassy toilet.
Angela Woodham told the court she Googled the brand name on the device and learned it was a covert camera. She stuck a Post-it Note over the lens and then locked it in her office cabinet. She then went to look at the toilet where it was discovered.
She said she handled it for about two minutes in total. She wasn’t wearing gloves, nor was anyone else who initially handled the camera, she recalled.
Gloves were also not used when a piece of cardboard was later located behind the radiator in the toilet and handed in, Ms Woodham testified.
Under cross examination, she told the jury that the piece of cardboard was simply dropped into the same Ziploc bag containing the camera. She admitted that no record was made on the day it was found of how the camera was received and handled by staff.
Ms Woodham recalled emailing some colleagues, including the police liaison officer to Washington, to notify them of the discovery. She said she handed the bag over to the police liaison officer on the following Monday after he returned to Washington from New Zealand.
She also told the jury today how later that week Keating casually inquired with her while passing her office whether a secret camera had been found. She said yes.
She said Keating must have learned about the discovery from someone else as she had not emailed him about it when it was found.
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