SINGAPORE — An 18-year-old former junior college student was sentenced to 21 months’ probation on Monday (March 30) for peeping at female undergraduates using the toilets at the National University of Singapore's (NUS) University Town (UTown).

Zachary Lim Yong Hao, who is waiting to enlist in National Service, will also have to perform 120 hours of community service and attend an offence-specific cognitive behavioural treatment programme.

He has to remain indoors from 10pm to 6am throughout his probation.

His mother posted a S$5,000 bond to ensure his good behaviour.

Probation is usually offered to first-time offenders between 16 and 21 years old. This does not result in a recorded criminal conviction, and allows young offenders to continue with their education or employment while serving their sentences.

Lim pleaded guilty last month to his offences, when the court heard that he first visited NUS UTown in January last year.

He was on a bus from Chua Chu Kang to Sentosa when he needed to use the toilet and alighted at the university to do so.

When he was done, he saw a female student entering the women’s toilet. Finding her attractive, he followed her in.

Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Colin Ng said that after this incident, Lim developed a habit of visiting NUS UTown almost every Sunday with the intention of looking at female students.

"The accused would cycle from his place at Chua Chu Kang to NUS UTown to walk around the campus looking at female students,” DPP Ng told the court. 

On March 17 last year, he narrowly escaped being caught after peeping at a female student from an adjacent cubicle. 

The female student immediately left the toilet, but returned about half an hour later with a friend. 

Noticing that the cubicle Lim occupied was locked, they knocked on the door, suspecting he was still inside.

When there was no response, they went to the security office to alert campus security officers, but Lim had left by the time the students returned with the officers.

He later confessed that he had peeped at the victim and masturbated while fantasising about her. 

He was nabbed on May 5 last year when an NUS campus security officer saw him loitering suspiciously outside the women’s toilet through closed-circuit television monitors.

Two other security officers went there, by which time Lim had already entered one of the cubicles.

They went in and demanded that Lim open the cubicle door. He refused to do so at first, but eventually relented.

He initially insisted that he had entered the women’s toilet by mistake, but later admitted that he had deliberately followed the student in as he would “get an adrenaline rush”, DPP Ng said.