Customer relationship officer jailed 9 weeks for taking upskirt videos at MRT stations

SINGAPORE — A 25-year-old man who filmed up the skirts of least five women at different MRT stations was sentenced to nine weeks’ jail on Monday (Aug 5).

Low Zhi Ying took 26 such videos over a span of about four months last year, before two fellow commuters — including a Briton working in Singapore — spotted him taking an obscene video at Telok Blangah MRT Station and detained him. 

He admitted that taking the videos made him excited, and he would sometimes use them as masturbatory aids.

Low, who worked as a customer relationship officer at the time, pleaded guilty to five charges of intruding upon his victims’ privacy with the intention to insult their modesty. Another 21 such charges were taken into consideration for sentencing.

Court documents showed that he began recording such videos in March last year until he was caught red-handed on June 12. All his victims cannot be named due to a court order to protect their identities.

The MRT stations Low targeted included the ones at Dhoby Ghaut, Outram Park, Chinatown, Jurong East and Expo.

He would stand behind his victims on the escalator heading up and position his iPhone such that it could film underneath their hemlines.

On the day he was caught, he noticed a 28-year-old woman going up the escalator at Exit A of Telok Blangah MRT Station. She was wearing a dress.

After noticing her, he rode closely on the escalator behind her, bent down as if to tie his shoelaces, and positioned his phone camera to take a 20-second-long video.

Mr Blakie Alan James, who was also on the escalator, noticed his actions and asked Low what he was doing. 

Mr James also shouted at the victim to alert her, while Low quickly deleted the video he had just taken.

When Mr James and the victim could not find it on his mobile phone, they detained him with the help of another passer-by and made a police report.

Police officers who responded to the call discovered many indecent photographs and videos on Low’s phone. They also discovered the video he had just taken, in a folder of deleted files.

Low’s lawyer Christine Chuah told the court that her client had been diagnosed with voyeuristic disorder and adjustment disorder at the Institute of Mental Health and is seeking treatment.

However, Deputy Public Prosecutor Victoria Ting replied that the illnesses did not have a contributory link to his offences.

District Judge Carol Ling ordered Low’s iPhone to be disposed of, but allowed the phone case to be returned to him.

For each charge of intruding upon his victims’ privacy with the intention to insult their modesty, he could have been jailed up to one year, fined, or both.