Singapore — A 33-year-old Japanese teacher has been sentenced to 24 days in jail by a district court for filming an upskirt video on an MRT train.
straitstimes.com reports that Shohei Yamamoto, a Japanese national who taught at a local education centre, was caught by the 25-year-old victim.
This occurred on the morning of June 29 this year. Yamamoto boarded the train at the Potong Pasir station shortly after 9.30 am.
He sat beside his unsuspecting victim and began to film an upskirt video of her.
As the train drew near Dhoby Ghaut station, the woman felt an object at her left leg. This was when she saw that Yamamoto’s phone was on top of his briefcase and that she was the subject of an upskirt video.
She confronted Yamamoto after they both alighted from the train. He then ran away.
The woman told the station master what had happened and he called the police. Yamamoto was soon arrested.
Although he had deleted the upskirt video before being apprehended by the police, he admitted having taken it when confronted by the authorities.
The police found 30 pornographic videos when they searched his laptop and cellular phone, some of which contained “kinky sadistic sex”, according to straitstimes.com.
The report added that he is no longer working for the education centre, which was not named in court documents.
On Monday (Dec 30), Yamamoto pleaded guilty to one count each of insulting a woman’s modesty and possessing obscene films. He was sentenced to 24 days in jail and a fine of $15,000.
This year has seen numerous arrests and convictions of people who took upskirt videos in various public places, such as on the train or on escalators in MRT stations.
On Dec 20, a 31-year-old man pleaded guilty to three counts of insulting the modesty of three women and one count of possessing two obscene films.
Woo Kim Hoe, a Malaysian, was sentenced to 12 weeks in jail and fined S$1,000. Woo, who was not represented by a lawyer, said he regretted what he did and that addiction to obscene Peeping Tom videos online had caused him to “lose his mind” and copy what he had seen in those videos.
In November, a district court heard that a lecturer had allegedly taken upskirt videos of a woman at the post-secondary institution where he worked.
He now faces one count of insulting a woman’s modesty.
The accused is a 39-year-old male who remains anonymous in order to protect the identity of his victim.
Also in November, a man suspected of taking upskirt videos died when five members of the public held him down as he tried to escape.
Police had responded to an alert regarding “a case of insulting the modesty of a woman”, since the suspect had reportedly taken upskirt videos of women at the Little India MRT Station.
When police arrived at around 12.45 PM, the man had already collapsed and was motionless. They attempted to revive him through CPR. Paramedics from the Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) were also called to the scene. -/TISG
Man found dead after crowd detains him for allegedly taking upskirt videos