A trainee surgeon accused of secretly filming hundreds of medical colleagues in hospital restrooms has been released on bail, a court heard on Friday.
Ryan Cho, 28, is expected to face around 500 charges linked to 4,500 intimate videos he allegedly recorded with phones. Police allege these were primarily made in staff restrooms at three Melbourne hospitals since 2021, as detailed in Victoria state Supreme Court documents.
Justice James Elliott ruled the junior doctor could be released on condition he reside with his parents, who moved from Singapore to Melbourne anticipating his release. His parents were required to post a 50,000 Australian dollar surety.
The prosecutor argued that the charges presented Cho with an inducement to flee and he had no meaningful ties to Australia after being suspended from his job. While Cho became an Australian permanent resident in April, he would face deportation if he was convicted and sentenced to 12 months or longer in prison, Hammill said.
The judge noted Cho had surrendered his Singapore passport and had no criminal connections to help him leave Australia.
Police allege Cho recorded intimate images of at least 460 women. The judge noted there was no allegation Cho had disseminated those images.
Cho was arrested in July after a phone was found recording from inside a mesh bag hanging in an Austin Hospital restroom. Police allege he also recorded in restrooms in the Peter MacCallum Cancer Center and the Royal Melbourne Hospital.
His lawyer Julian McMahon rejected prosecutors’ fears that if released, Cho could interfere with witnesses. There were likely to be hundreds of witnesses alleging similar offenses, McMahon said.
“There’s a sense here that if my client were to engage in the criminal offense of interfering with witnesses that it wouldn’t affect the outcome of the case,” McMahon said.
Cho was initially charged with six offenses but another 127 charges were added Thursday, including intentionally recording intimate images without permission.
McMahon said it was too early to tell if the allegations would go to trial. Cho hasn't entered pleas.
Cho came to Australia as a student in 2017 and studied medicine at Melbourne’s Monash University.
