Serial voyeur jailed again for taking upskirt photos and videos of women riding escalators

SINGAPORE — Despite being jailed repeatedly in recent years for similar offences, ex-engineer Gary Huang Kunjie kept taking upskirt photos and videos of women in public. 

Huang, 37, was sentenced to 36 weeks in jail after he pleaded guilty to two charges of voyeurism on Wednesday (Oct 19). Two other charges were taken into consideration for sentencing. 

It was not his first time carrying out such acts. Huang has been arrested and jailed on at least three previous occasions over the past four years involving dozens of instances of taking voyeuristic videos of women. 

Huang started taking upskirt videos in his early 20s and was given probation in 2010 as a result.  

He was most recently jailed last year after admitting to nine counts of voyeurism with 11 similar charges taken into account.

TODAY has asked the Attorney-General's Chambers how many times he has been jailed previously.

HOW IT HAPPENED 

On April 30 this year at about 7.30pm, the victim, a 43-year-old woman, was riding up an escalator from Bugis MRT station to Bugis Junction. 

She cannot be named due to a gag order. 

While on the escalator, the woman looked down and noticed Huang’s phone in his hand, facing upwards and pointed under her skirt with the camera application in use. 

Despite confronting him about it and asking him to delete the media from his phone, Huang denied filming her and quickly walked away. 

She immediately went after him but after checking his phone, did not find any videos of herself. 

The woman lodged a police report the next day. 

He was arrested on May 20 and his phone was seized that day. 

Further investigations found that Huang had immediately deleted the images of the victim's underwear after getting caught red-handed by her.  

Analysis done on his phone also showed that Huang had also recorded voyeuristic videos of two unknown women on two separate occasions, also on escalators.

'NEED FOR DETERRENCE'

Huang’s lawyer, Gregory Fong from Fong and Fong LLC, asked for a lower sentence than the 40 weeks' jail sought by the prosecution. 

He said there were only four charges this time round and there were "quite considerably more" charges for his sentence in 2021. 

Mr Fong added that he believes Huang requires medical treatment so that he will not have to be "hauled back to court again and again".

TODAY reported previously that an Institute of Mental Health (IMH) psychiatrist diagnosed Huang with fetishistic disorder and obsessive compulsive disorder.

Mr Fong added that Huang’s parents are also frustrated that their son repeatedly intrudes on the privacy of women. 

However, Deputy Public Prosecutor Jaime Pang pointed out that IMH reports were called for during Huang’s previous sentences in 2020 and 2021, meaning that Huang was already aware that he has this condition. 

“If he was committed to rehabilitation, he was already given many occasions to do so…As much as we hope that he will be rehabilitated this time, the current trend is not particularly optimistic,” said Mr Pang. 

In sentencing Huang, District Judge Carol Ling warned him against reoffending. 

“Rest assured the sentences will eventually come to a point where they are quite high… There is a need for deterrence and you will need to be very proactive about your own condition,” said District Judge Ling. 

Anyone convicted of voyeurism can be jailed for up to two years, fined, caned, or given any combination of the three.