A Sydney lawyer who was accused by his female neighbour of secretly filming her while she exercised at home has said that he was legitimately filming the exterior walls of her flat in connection with a property dispute.

Phillip Manwarring has watched in horror as the story that he recorded his neighbour in her gym kit went around the world. The Daily Mail reported that his neighbour, 'Angelica', was "shocked" to see see a phone attached to a selfie-stick and large pole emerging behind her balcony as she exercised at home, and that she grabbed a shirt and hid behind a wall. The Sun described Manwarring's filming device as a "creepy cam". 

But Manwarring, Head of Legal at Gresham, a fund management business in Sydney, told RollOnFriday that the claims were "false and hurtful". He said he had obtained permission from the building's owners' committee to repair deteriorating walls around Angelica's family flat, which was above his own, but had been refused access to the apartment on 19 separate occasions. He said he used the phone on a selfie-stick, with engineers and builders present, to film the external walls so they could watch the footage live and check for any damage. He added that the film "only shows the walls" of the property, not anyone in their leotard.

Manwarring. Not trying to be secret. Part 1

Part 2. Ooo sexy.

Part 3. This is not what a secretive pervert looks like. (This is.)

The Mail also slobbered that Angelica had spotted Manwarring's car outside her family's other, half-finished, house. But Manwarring told RollOnFriday that he was only there to gauge when it would be finished, because once completed they might move out of the flat above him."Having observed that it was a long way from completion,"  he told ROF, "the following day I made the decision to remove my family from our apartment and to rent elsewhere".