11 weeks’ jail for worker who took voyeuristic videos of teen girls in hotel toilet, on MRT train

SINGAPORE — A 28-year-old man, who was deployed by his company to clean and polish aluminium panels at Fairmont Singapore hotel, took videos of a 16-year-old American student who was using the women’s toilet there. 

He was also found to have almost 2,000 other obscene videos on his mobile phone.

On Friday (April 22), Poomalai Prasanath was jailed for 11 weeks after pleading guilty earlier this year to two counts of voyeurism. Another four charges, including criminal trespass, were taken into consideration for sentencing.

The India national held a work permit at the time of his offences, the court previously heard.

His victims cannot be named due to court orders to protect their identities.

On March 11 last year, Poomalai targeted the 16-year-old student from an international school, who usually played tennis at Fairmont's tennis courts in the afternoons.

While she was on the way to the eighth-floor toilet, she noticed Poomalai along the corridor.

She then entered the toilet and used one of the cubicles, noticing that the toilet lid at the cubicle closest to the entrance was closed.

Just then, she heard someone enter that cubicle. She suspected that Poomalai had trespassed because she did not hear him lifting the toilet lid, and he was alone along the corridor at the time.

She grew frightened, ran out of the toilet and reported the incident to her school teacher, who later complained to a hotel security staff member.

Poomalai was then identified and the security staff member detained him when he reported for work the next day at the hotel along Bras Basah Road.

After he was nabbed, he claimed to have entered the toilet merely to drink water from the washbasin.

He then admitted to trespassing and taking two voyeuristic videos of the girl, by placing his mobile phone underneath and above the cubicle divider.

He then reviewed the videos, which did not capture anything lewd, and deleted them.

He also confessed to trespassing the same toilet on another occasion and taking another voyeuristic video.

Separately, on Feb 26 last year, Poomalai was on an MRT train when he tried to take upskirt videos of two female students in school uniforms. He then deleted the three video clips he had taken, which only captured the girls’ skirts and shins.

When police officers examined his mobile phone, they found 1,836 obscene videos aside from the ones he had deleted.

Those convicted of voyeurism can be jailed for up to two years, fined, caned, or receive any combination of these punishments.