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Voyeur filmed close female friend and strangers using toilets, almost 1,000 obscene films recovered

SINGAPORE — Using spy cameras he bought, a man hid them in toilets located in his home, his office building or the homes of his female victims so that he could watch them without their knowledge.

A man hid spy cameras and filmed seven women between January and December in 2019, at a toilet for disabled people, which was located within his office building.
A man hid spy cameras and filmed seven women between January and December in 2019, at a toilet for disabled people, which was located within his office building.
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  • A 40-year-old man pursued voyeuristic activities to film several women using toilets
  • One was a close female friend of his and others were strangers who worked in his office building
  • He pleaded guilty to voyeurism and insulting the modesty of several women, among other offences
  • He is jailed for nine months 

SINGAPORE — Using spy cameras he bought, a man hid them in toilets located in his home, his office building or the homes of his female victims so that he could watch them without their knowledge.

In all, he intruded on the privacy of seven women whom he knew — including a close friend of his — and several other women whom he did not know.

After he was caught, the police retrieved the digital devices that the man had thrown away and discovered that they contained 591 videos and 18 photographs of obscene materials, which allowed them to identify some of the victims involved.

A thumb drive was also seized and it was found to contain 355 obscene films.

On Tuesday (March 29), the 40-year-old Singaporean man was jailed for nine months after he pleaded guilty to four charges of insulting a woman’s modesty, three charges of voyeurism and one charge of possessing 355 obscene films.

He cannot be name due to a court order to protect the identity of the victims, a number of whom are his co-workers.

THE CASE

Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Selene Yap said that sometime in 2016, the man bought his first spy camera.

Realising that it was tiny enough to avoid detection, he decided to buy another and placed it in the toilet of his apartment, where his female friends would visit him on occasion.

Noting that the quality of the recorded footage was good, he went on to buy more of these cameras and concealed them at various other locations such as the toilets of his friends’ homes when he went there for gatherings.

One of his victims was a 40-year-old woman, a close friend of his whom he had known since 1990, and they would travel together regularly.

Both the man and the woman were also "part of a clique" that would meet up regularly, DPP Yap said, including spending time at his apartment to play mahjong.

On Feb 16 in 2020, before a mahjong session at the man’s apartment, he hid several cameras in his toilet.

The female friend used the toilet and the cameras captured her relieving herself from different angles.

Other victims included acquaintances whom the man got to know through work, such as a 41-year-old woman who went to his place of residence to use the swimming pool. She was filmed in various states of undress when she used his toilet to shower or to relieve herself on three occasions between Dec 30 in 2018 and July 14 in 2019.

In another instance, which happened on Jan 28 in 2020, the man visited the home of a 44-year-old woman and hid a camera in her toilet.

The camera was then able to capture a 45-year-old woman, a friend of the younger women, while she was half-naked and relieving herself in the toilet.

DPP Yap also told the court that the man had hidden cameras on seven occasions, between January and December in 2019, at a toilet for disabled people, which was located within his office building. He was able to film seven women who used the toilet.

HOW HE WAS CAUGHT

The man’s voyeuristic activities came to an end on March 19 in 2020 when a male complainant reported that he had found a hidden camera at the toilet for the disabled.

That same day, the accused returned to the toilet in an attempt to retrieve the cameras he had hidden, but found them missing.

The court heard that the man then returned to his apartment, packed up his electronic devices into three bags and discarded them at a dustbin nearby.

DPP Yap also said that the man deleted some of the footages that he had captured previously, though she did not state on which device they were stored.

When he returned to his workplace, the man saw that the police were present and eventually decided to admit to his superior that he was the one who had hidden the cameras in the toilet for the disabled.

For each charge of insulting the modesty of a woman, the man could have been jailed up to a year or fined, or both.

For each charge of voyeurism, the man could have been jailed for up to two years, or fined, or caned, or received any combination of these punishments.

For the possession of obscene films, he could have been fined up to S$20,000 or jailed up to six months, or both.

Related topics

crime voyeurism court obscene video toilet spy cam

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