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Man gets 16 weeks’ jail for taking upskirt photos, videos of flatmate in shower

SINGAPORE — A 39-year-old man was sentenced to 16 weeks’ jail yesterday for taking upskirt videos of his female friend and filming her while she was in the shower. He and the victim were living in the same flat with three other mutual female friends.

SINGAPORE — A 39-year-old man was sentenced to 16 weeks’ jail yesterday for taking upskirt videos of his female friend and filming her while she was in the shower. He and the victim were living in the same flat with three other mutual female friends.

Filipino Villalobos Ruel Salazar, who was an accountant, had pleaded guilty to three counts of insulting the modesty of his 30-year-old flatmate, who cannot be named because of a gag order.

Another five similar charges were taken into consideration for the purposes of sentencing.

The court heard that Salazar and the victim had been living together since October 2013. Sometime in March or April last year, while they were having lunch at the dining table, Salazar became aroused by the victim, who had accidentally exposed herself for a brief moment. Using his mobile phone, he then filmed an upskirt video of her from under the table.

In another incident on Aug 29 last year, he saw the victim walk towards the water dispenser next to the dining table. He started the video recording function on his mobile phone, placed it in one of the slippers he was wearing and recorded another upskirt video of the victim. He later transferred the video from his mobile phone to his laptop a few days later for private viewing.

Three days later, he waited for the victim to enter the toilet before climbing onto a chair to film her through the window panels. He committed a similar act on Oct 27 and was nearly caught after the victim noticed the mobile phone and splashed water at it. When she told Salazar that she saw a mobile phone at the toilet window, he said he was fixing a rag on the bamboo pole near the window.

She did not question him further, but two days later, she filed a police report against him.

In his mitigation plea, Salazar’s lawyer said his client had paid S$28,870.42 as compensation to the victim at her request through her solicitor and had also submitted a personal letter of apology.

In meting out the sentence, district judge Low Wee Ping said that, while the compensation had some relevance, he did not place much weight on it as it was requested by the victim.

He also noted that the facts of the case were quite disconcerting: Salazar had “systematically insulted the modesty” of the victim through the use of his mobile phone, a device now commonly used as an instrument of crime. After taking upskirt videos of her, he was also emboldened to move on to filming her while she was taking a bath, the judge added.

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