A man who captured footage of several of his women friends using the toilet was given a jail sentence of nine months on Tuesday (Mar 29).
His identity, as well as that of his victims and other details of his offences, are protected by a gag order from the court.
The man, 40, pleaded guilty to eight charges of insulting a woman’s modesty, voyeurism, and possessing obscene films, with 17 other charges considered for his sentencing, CNA reported.
At least five of the man’s female friends, all of whom are also in their forties, were victimised through his modus operandi, which was to place spy cameras in the bathrooms of his flat and the homes of his friends, as well as one in his office.
One of the women he filmed in the toilet had been friends with him for three decades, with CNA describing their relationship as a close one, and adding that they, along with others in a group, met and travelled together regularly.
He took a video of this woman in his own bathroom in Feb 2020, using a spy camera he installed before she came over to play mahjong.
Other women who visited his place were also caught on film using the toilet.
The man’s offences started in 2016 after he bought his first spy camera. He tested it, was satisfied with the quality of the footage, then proceeded to buy several more that he installed in different venues starting from 2017, including the bathrooms in his friends’ residences.
He victimised a woman who would use the swimming pool in his apartment complex by filming her in his shower three times after her swim.
Between January 2019 and March 2020, the offender also victimised ten different women, all unknown to him, when he installed spy cams in the seventh floor handicapped bathroom at his place of work.
This, however, led to his discovery. On Mar 19, 2020, a person reported finding a camera in this bathroom.
When the offender went to get the camera in order to transfer the videos taken, they were gone. He went home and threw away his electronic gadgets, as well as deleted video files from the spy cameras.
But when he went back to work, there were police already.
Court documents say that he then came clean to his superior about having placed the camera in the seventh-floor toilet.
Police later found the gadgets he had thrown away and found hundreds of obscene material. /TISG
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