Jail for man who spiked colleague’s water with muscle relaxant in bid to molest her, took obscene videos

• A 31-year-old admitted to taking dozens of videos of two colleagues when they were using a toilet 
• He also pleaded guilty to placing medicine in one colleague’s water
• He intended to molest her if the drug, a muscle relaxant, affected her mental state

SINGAPORE — After taking several videos of two female colleagues using the toilet in their office, a man drugged one victim’s water with a muscle relaxant so that he could molest her.

He admitted to doing so after watching the videos and developing a “craving” to touch her.

For his offences, the 31-year-old Singaporean, who cannot be named due to court orders to protect his victims’ identities, was jailed for one year and two months on Friday (April 9).

He pleaded guilty to two counts of insulting a woman’s modesty, as well as one charge of attempting to cause hurt by administering a stupefying drug in order to commit outrage of modesty.

Two other similar charges were taken into consideration for sentencing.

The court heard that he recorded 76 videos of his two colleagues between July 12 and Oct 9, 2019. Most of them — 61 — were of the victim whom he eventually tried to drug.

He admitted during investigations to watching the footage and masturbating to them at home.

When preparing to take the videos, he had also set his mobile phone to the silent mode with no vibration.

He would usually place the phone in the office’s common toilet in the afternoons before work ended, because he noticed that his female colleagues would use it before leaving work.

On Oct 9, 2019, the colleague he frequently targeted left her mug on a table directly in front of the toilet before going there.

The man proceeded to pour a mixture of Anarex — a muscle relaxant— and water into the mug. He then left.

The colleague later poured the remaining water in the mug into the sink, but realised that there were “some blue-coloured particles” in the sink. She then took a whiff of her mug and realised that it smelled like alcohol.

Finding this suspicious, she checked the office’s closed-circuit television camera footage and saw what the man had done.

She then called the police and he was later arrested.

An analysis of the substance later revealed that it contained orphenadrine and paracetamol. Some of the side effects included dizziness, restlessness, dry mouth and nausea.

He admitted that he had planned to give her Anarex since August 2019 and hoped that she would drink it after the rest of their colleagues had left.

He further admitted that if she grew nauseous or dizzy, he would “take the opportunity to touch and feel her body as he would not be able to touch her if she was in a normal state”, Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Bjorn Tan told the court.

‘MILD-MANNERED INDIVIDUAL’

In mitigation, the man’s lawyer — Mr Marshall Lim from Invictus Law Corporation — said that he was a “mild-mannered individual who often experienced difficulty in expressing his emotions to others, especially to those of the opposite gender”.

He had two short-lived relationships and had developed romantic feelings for the victim he tried to drug.

“However, our client felt that he could never find the right words to express himself. Unfortunately, this led to our client embarking on a series of unfortunate acts, which he deeply regrets,” Mr Lim said.

The lawyer added that the man did not excuse his behaviour, but had acted “in a misguided attempt” to address his romantic feelings.

Mr Lim also noted that the victim fortuitously did not drink the spiked water, and that his client believed that there would be no lasting harm if she did since the man had been taking the same medication himself. A general practitioner had prescribed it to him after he fell ill.

“This was clearly a lapse in judgement and not reflective of his character. Indeed, his family had expressed shock and disbelief when our client was called up to assist in investigations.

“Our client had always been reserved and shy and these offences were clearly inconsistent with his nature,” Mr Lim added.

For insulting a woman’s modesty, he could have been jailed for up to a year or fined, or both.

For causing hurt by means of a stupefying substance, he could have been jailed for up to 10 years and fined or caned.