A woman who only wishes to be known as Ms. Tan now feels “paranoid” around men after reporting a complete stranger to the police for allegedly taking upskirt videos of her in Simei. The 29-year-old man has been arrested for public disturbance, and additional investigations into the incident are ongoing.
On Thursday, October 18, the police were informed of a case of public disturbance that happened the day before at Block 155 Simei Road, which led to the man’s arrest.
The incident happened on the afternoon of October 17, Wednesday. Tan was making her way home when she observed that a man next to her had his mobile phone angled underneath her skirt with the video camera running.
Tan said that she shared details, photos of the man and a video of her confronting him on her Facebook, but that she wished to remain partially anonymous.
In Tan’s photos, the alleged perpetrator was carrying a plastic bag and wearing a torn blue shirt and black shorts.
The 20-something-year-old said that she heard “a plastic bag sound” and noticed that a man was behind her. But she did not realize how close the man was to her until she felt something touch the inside of her thigh.
Upon turning around, she said she saw a man “bent down, with the phone turned up”, aiming for below her skirt. Tan even saw herself in a video the man was taking.
She immediately moved away and confronted the man.
“I asked him what he was doing and he said nothing and began walking away really fast. I demanded to see his phone, chased after him, grabbed him and tried to retrieve the phone,” Tan said.
Tan recounted that she was able to get his phone at one point during the commotion, but that he twisted her left wrist and “snatched it back”.
“This whole scuffle lasted about 1 minute so you can imagine the time he had to delete the videos,” she said.
Tan reported that when he eventually gave her his phone to look at, the videos had been deleted.
In one of the videos Tan posted on her Facebook, audio picked up the man denying that he had taken any upskirt videos of her.
The man also showed her some identification when she said she was planning to submit an incident report to the police.
It’s not unusual for people who experienced a complete invasion of privacy to feel violated and therefore distrustful of others afterwards, which is what happened to Tan.
“It’s too early to say how I’m coping, but I feel quite paranoid whenever a guy gets close,” Tan told another media source.
Last month, a committee formed to review the current Penal Code proposed several changes, which included making voyeurism an illegal offense. Voyeurism is defined by the Merriam-Webster Dictionary as “the practice of obtaining sexual gratification from observing others”.