Jail for engineer who went to female office toilet 4 times in one night to film colleague

SINGAPORE — While working the night shift, Nicholas Chang Ding Jie repeatedly returned to the women’s toilet in his office building to take videos of his colleague. 

On his fourth visit to the toilet, the victim spotted his mobile phone and screamed. Chang then fled and deleted the video recordings from his device.

He later admitted to similarly recording other women in the toilet about 10 to 20 times before that day.

For his offences last year, Chang was sentenced to 20 weeks’ jail — or about five months — on Monday (Oct 17).

The 27-year-old Singaporean earlier pleaded guilty to voyeurism, attempted voyeurism and two charges of criminal trespass by entering the women’s toilet. Four other similar charges were taken into consideration for sentencing.

His 28-year-old victim cannot be named due to a gag order to protect her identity.

Chang, who worked as an assistant engineer at the time, did not know her personally but had seen her around their office premises and knew she worked in a different department.

The court heard that on Sept 8, 2021, Chang reported for work around 8.45pm. Shortly after midnight, he spotted the victim walking to the toilet on the fourth floor.

When he followed her into the toilet, he checked if anyone else was there by looking under the cubicle doors. Satisfied that they were alone, he held his mobile phone over her cubicle door to film her.

He then went to the men’s toilet to review the footage and saw that he had filmed her squatting over the toilet bowl with her pants down, speaking on the phone.

Chang decided to go back to the women’s toilet and hold his phone under the victim’s cubicle door. 

After a few seconds of recording, he went to the men’s toilet again to check his video. This time, he managed to film her genitals.

Chang returned to his office and a few hours passed before he thought he saw the victim going to the toilet again.

Feeling confident he would escape undetected once more, he filmed a woman from the top of her toilet cubicle, only realising later it was a different victim.

He then continued with his work before spotting the victim going to the toilet around 5am.

When he slid his phone under her cubicle door to record her, she saw the device and screamed, prompting him to panic and leave the toilet. He then deleted the video recordings and checked for any cameras in the vicinity of the toilet.

The victim went to the security counter on the first floor to report the matter. When Chang also went there to access some facilities for work purposes, he was shocked to find her there.

He returned to his office and put on a jacket to prevent her from recognising him.

A few days later, a security officer accompanied the victim to Chua Chu Kang Neighbourhood Police Centre to lodge a police report.

Court documents did not elaborate on how Chang was eventually identified.

For voyeurism, Chang could have been jailed for up to two years, fined, caned, or given any combination of the three.

For criminal trespass, he could have been jailed up to three months or fined up to S$1,500, or both.