Man, 67, jailed 4 months for repeatedly filming maid in the shower

• A man kept placing his mobile phone under the gap of his kitchen bathroom door
• He used this method to secretly film his domestic worker showering
• After she learned who was doing this, she fled to a migrant workers’ shelter
• The man's lawyer argued that it was an “unfortunate lapse of judgement”

SINGAPORE — A man in his 60s preyed on his domestic worker many times when she was in the shower, using his mobile phone to secretly film her naked.

The woman ultimately caught him red handed by leaving her own phone outside the bathroom on video recording mode.

She later escaped to a shelter run by the Humanitarian Organisation for Migration Economics (Home) before lodging a police report. 

For his actions, the man, now aged 67, was jailed for four months on Wednesday (July 14).

The Singaporean pleaded guilty to one charge each of voyeurism and insulting a woman’s modesty, with another two similar charges taken into consideration for sentencing.

The offence of voyeurism took effect from Jan 1 last year. 

Before it became a specific offence, those who secretly filmed others were convicted under Section 509 of the Penal Code for insulting a woman’s modesty — a provision that has been repealed.

WHAT HAPPENED

The victim, 32, who hails from Myanmar, cannot be named due to a court order to protect her identity.

The man's name and address were not shown in court documents. 

The woman began working for him and his wife in March 2016. 

The court heard that he filmed the victim at least nine times starting from August 2019 up till January 2020, because he “felt the urge to see her naked body”.

One evening that month, she approached him in the living room and told him that she was going to shower in the kitchen bathroom. He acknowledged this and waited for her to enter the bathroom before retrieving his iPhone X and placing it under the door gap.

He angled it to record her showering, repositioning it in order to capture her nude.

He filmed her for less than a minute as he was afraid of being caught. He then went back to the living room to watch the video clip before deleting it.

A few months later on Dec 21, 2019, the victim noticed the phone under the door when she was showering. 

She did not try to find out who had filmed her or bring the matter up with her employers out of fear.

Instead, she decided to hide her mobile phone in the kitchen, leaving it on video recording mode with the camera lens facing the bathroom door in order to capture the person filming her.

Her employer proceeded to take a three-minute video of her on the evening of Jan 4 last year.

About a week later on Jan 13, she left the house around midnight and went to the Home shelter along Geylang Road, where she was advised to make a police report. She did so later that day at the Bedok North Neighbourhood Police Centre.

'UNFORTUNATE LAPSE OF JUDGEMENT’

Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Ng Jun Chong sought 18 to 22 weeks’ jail, while the man’s lawyer Cheryl Ng asked for 12 to 16 weeks instead.

Ms Ng told the court in mitigation that her client suffers from ailments such as coronary heart disease, diabetes and high cholesterol. 

The lawyer further argued that he committed the offences due to an “unfortunate lapse in judgement” and wished to convey his apologies to the victim.

The police also may not have known the extent of his offences, Ms Ng added, as he had confessed to filming her on numerous occasions. “Some credit ought to be given as he was forthcoming, which is reflective of his remorse.”

DPP Ng replied that the man clearly did not exhibit a lapse in judgement since he had filmed the victim not once, but several times.

In sentencing the man, District Judge Lorraine Ho noted that he might still be committing the offences if he had not been caught.

For voyeurism, he could have been jailed for up to two years or fined, or both. Offenders can be also caned but those aged 50 or above cannot be caned by law.

Insulting a woman’s modesty carries a maximum jail term of one year or a fine, or both.