~Warning: This story contains references to child sexual abuse that may be upsetting to some readers.
A Penticton man will spend 45 days in jail and 10 years on the sexual offenders registry for recording a video of a minor showering at the Penticton Community Centre in 2024.
Zachary Nicholas Sarault, 24, appeared in Penticton Provincial Court on Jan. 14 to hear his fate after having previously pleaded guilty to the charges of secretly recording nudity in a private place and possession of child sexual abuse material in 2025.
The charge of making child sexual abuse material was stayed as part of the plea.
Communications counsel for the Crown Prosecution Service, Damienne Darby, confirmed in an email that the court had also imposed a 10-year order placing Sarault on the national sex offender registry as part of the sentence.
As this case involves a minor, a statutory publication ban bars the sharing of any information that would identify them. As a result, they will be referred to as Jane Doe in this story.
At the September 2025 appearance where Sarault entered in his guilty plea, the court was told that on Jan. 25, 2024, Doe had gone to the Community Centre pool with her mother, and that after going swimming, they had entered the family changing room section to clean off.
Doe took her baby sibling with her into the handicapped stall, which had its own changing area, and she began to shower.
While Doe was in the shower, she looked up and saw a phone facing her with the camera on and recording, and she could see some of herself on the screen.
She immediately alerted her mother just outside, and Sarault promptly fled towards the pool, before doubling back through the family change room. Doe’s mother found him in the lobby, and he stayed there until the RCMP arrived and arrested him.
A search warrant for his phone revealed photos of the prepubescent girl showering and towelling off, in both cases her genitals fully exposed, and a selfie photo of Sarault himself in the adjoining stall.
A victim impact statement from Doe’s mother was shared with the court, with specific sections read aloud into the record.
“I feel like my daughter’s innocence was stolen in a place that she should have felt safe,” Doe’s mother wrote. “A public changing room should not be a place of danger, yet now it feels like one. …you turned one of our favourite family activities into something full of anxiety.”
The statement continues and says that Doe withdrew from the world and that she is now filled with fear and paranoia towards men.
“She now carries a heavy burden of believing she failed to protect her baby sister,” Doe’s mother wrote.
Sarault has no prior criminal record, and it was noted that outside of this incident, he had otherwise seemed to be a pro-social individual with a career and a long-term relationship. Both Crown and Sarault’s defence noted he had attended counselling regularly since before his first court appearance.
“I’m committed to doing everything in my power to make sure that something like this never happens again,” Sarault said as he addressed the court during Defence’s submissions. “I understand the gravity of my actions, and now I must be accountable for them. I ask for the opportunity to prove that this will be a turning point in my life, one where I take full responsibility for my actions and do everything in my power to do what is right.”
Crown wanted a sentence of two years less a day jail, which would allow for Sarault to undertake specific programs while in custody, followed by three years probation with a number of restrictions, including barring him from public pools and parks.
Defence for Sarault wanted to have any sentence be one served under house arrest in the community, instead of in prison, and stated that he had not gone into the change room with the intention of recording a minor specifically.
The pre-sentencing and psychiatric reports on Sarault found that his likelihood to reoffend would be tied to whether he felt lonely and a hindrance to society.
Following the 45-day jail sentence, Sarault will spend two years under the probation order.