Singapore — A 31-year-old man pleaded guilty on Friday (Dec 20) 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.
TODAYonline reported that the man, who worked as a supervisor in a restaurant, had crept behind a young woman after boarding the train at Newton MRT Station on March 6 this year. When she got off at Hillview MRT Station, Woo followed her so that he could take upskirt videos of the 24-year-old.
While he was making plans to follow her, he thumbed through some of the upskirt videos he already had on his phone. This was seen by another commuter, Mr Teow Yoke Paul, who also observed him watching the young woman.
Mr Teow followed Woo when he got off the train at the Hillview station. As Woo stood behind the woman, he put his phone between his own legs, so that it would face the underside of the skirt of his victim.
Woo was stopped by Mr Teow and several other people when he tried to flee. Mr Teow notified station staff where he was being held and the police were called.
On Woo’s mobile phone, the police found an upskirt video of the woman. They also found eight similar videos of other women. Two had been taken the same day and the remaining six only two days earlier.
Woo had used the same method to record the upskirt footage, i.e. by standing a step below the victim on an ascending escalator.
Police found two obscene videos on Woo’s phone that he claimed had been downloaded from online sources. He was fined $500 for each of the videos.
Woo told District Judge Teo Guan Kee that he regretted his actions, according to TODAYonline.
He said: “I lost my mind and did the wrong thing. I remember the time when my investigation officer asked me how (would) it feel if (it happened to) my sister… I thought about it and felt very sorry. I will not reoffend again.”
He added that, on his release on bail after his arrest, he had counselling sessions to help him deal with his addiction to obscene Peeping Tom videos online. He had also done volunteer work.
Woo added that the psychiatrist had said that part of his tendencies could have come from his stress and loneliness, as he was by himself in Singapore. Deputy Public Prosecutor Lim Woon Yee, however, rebutted that this should not be taken into consideration in mitigation as there were other ways to relieve stress.
Woo could have received as much as one year of jail time, as well as a fine, for having intruded on the privacy of each of his victims with the intent to insult their modesty.
As for the pornographic videos on his phone, he could have been jailed for 6 months and fined as much as $20,000. -/TISG
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