Singapore—On the heels of public clamour for more stringent handling of sexual misconduct cases in institutes of higher learning, another incident of an individual allegedly taking photos in the shower has emerged.
This time, however, it was a male who had been spied upon while in the shower at a residence hall at in Nanyang Technological University (NTU). The incident was reported to have occurred at NTU Hall 3.
Police are now investigating a 19-year-old male for criminal trespass under Section 447 of the Penal Code, Chapter 224. The individual being questioned is not a resident of the hall. According to a representative from NTU, the man is not a student of the university, nor does he work there, The Straits Times (ST) reports.
The university’s representative added that students assisted with detaining the man while the police were called to the scene.
Police told ST that on 1:11 pm on April 21, Sunday, a 999 call came in requesting assistance. The person who called said that a man had taken pictures of another man in the shower at the residence hall.
The NTU representative emphasized that building a safe environment on campus is of utmost importance. “NTU believes in building a culture of mutual support where students are encouraged to watch out for one another.”
He also said that cameras are able to monitor the common areas within the residence halls and that security personnel on campus also perform regular checks on the halls.
This Peeping Tom incident comes on the heels of another recent case of an individual filmed while showering, which resulted in widespread criticism of how the National University of Singapore (NUS) handled the incident.
Last week, a 23-year-old communications student of NUS, Monica Baey, took to Instagram to share her story of having been filmed by a male student while showering at NUS’ Eusoff Hall in November 2018.
She wrote about the distress she had suffered, as well as expressed her dissatisfaction with how the case had been handled. She wrote, “I want some real change in NUS … I want real consequences for perpetrators that commit such acts.”
The man who had filmed her, Nicholas Lim, had been given a 12-month conditional warning by the police, which is common to first-time offenders. He was also suspended by NUS for one semester, banned from NUS campus residences and asked to apologize to Ms Baey via a letter.
Ms Baey’s Instagram story went viral, and many netizens seemed to agree that Mr Lim got off too lightly. Even Education Minister Ong Ye Kung weighed in on the matter and said that he asked NUS and other universities to review their disciplinary methods for such cases.
NUS, which has a “two strikes and you’re out” policy for cases of sexual misconduct, has said that it will review the policy, after having received much pushback from students of the university, as well as members of the public in general.
This is not the first time, apparently, that a male has been caught filming fellow male students at NTU. Three years ago, a 24-year-old male student was arrested after taking a video of a resident showering in one of the dormitories. Later, over 60 other videos of male students also showering were found in the perpetrator’s cellphone, according to an ST report.
During the incident, which occurred on October 13, 2016, other students helped apprehend the suspect after he came out of the cubicle where he had locked himself. When they examined his phone, they saw 66 videos of other male students in the shower.
The 24-year-old man suspect was later arrested for “possession of obscene material.”/ TISG