Full-time National Serviceman Darren Tan Yong Xin was jailed for 12 weeks today for insulting the modesty of a woman. He was also fined S$2,000 for having 4 obscene films in his possession at the time.
The 26-year-old defendant admitted to one count of insulting the modesty of a woman, one count of attempting to do so and one count of possessing four obscene films in August.
Tan was caught at a Cotton On outlet at Vivocity on 30 April 2016, after he filmed an upskirt video of a woman in the fitting room beside his. Successful the first time, Darren tried the stunt again on a second woman who entered the fitting room to try on lingerie but was caught red-handed instead.
The second woman, a 21-year-old student, noticed Tan holding his mobile phone under the partition separating their stalls – he had his screen on and facing up and was clearly filming the woman using the phone’s front-facing camera.
The woman immediately approached the outlet’s staff who confiscated Darren’s phone and called the police. Darren was arrested after police found the video of the woman changing together with a number of other obscene videos.
This is not the first time that Darren has been busted for attempting to take upskirt shots of women. The court heard that he did so at least once before three years ago, when he tried to snap an upskirt photo of a 32-year-old banker at Yio Chu Kang MRT station on 15 July 2014.
The woman who was going up to the MRT platform on the escalator caught Darren in the act when she felt a tugging sensation at the lower half of her dress. When she turned, near the top of the escalator, she saw Darren standing close behind her with his phone beneath her dress.
Startled at being caught, Darren rushed off the escalator, ran down the stairs and escaped the station. However, police managed to identify and arrest him later.
The court heard that Darren was only walking past the station when he noticed the woman and decided to follow her through the MRT gantry when he felt an urge to take and upskirt shot of her. In the 2016 fitting room cases, Darren reportedly decided to film the first woman because he noticed her going into the fitting room next to him and thought she was attractive.
Meanwhile, the Singapore Police Force (SPF) reported that there is an uptrend in Outrage of Modesty Cases, revealing that 1,168 cases were reported between January and September – constituting an increase of 194 cases, or 19.9 per cent – compared to the same period in 2016.
Public transport was flagged as a disturbing hotspot where outrage of modesty offences increasingly occur:
“Between January and September 2017, there were 1,168 reported cases of Outrage of Modesty, an increase of 194 cases (or 19.9%) compared to the same period last year. 152 of these cases were reported on public transport, while 76 of these cases were reported at public entertainment outlets, an increase of 50 cases (or 49.0%) and 15 cases (or 24.6%) respectively, compared to the same period last year.”
https://theindependent.sg.sg/metoo-trends-in-singapore-as-police-report-20-jump-in-molestation-cases-so-far-in-2017/