Man jailed 28 days for taking upskirt photos at Tampines MRT station
A 26-year-old man was sentenced to 28 days in jail on Monday (9 Jun) for snapping upskirt photos of a woman on an MRT escalator.
Man took upskirt photos at Tampines MRT station
According to The Straits Times (ST), Lai Zi Yang committed the offence last November when he was on his way to meet a friend for dinner.
He had taken the train from Jalan Besar and was at Tampines MRT station when he noticed a woman wearing a skirt on the escalator in front of him.
Source: Wikipedia. For illustration purposes only.
According to the court hearing, Lai used his phone to secretly take 14 upskirt photos by placing it on his knees with the camera lens angled upwards.
Another commuter caught him in the act and confronted him. The alert commuter also informed the victim, who later lodged a police report.
Investigations revealed more victims
Investigations uncovered that this wasn’t Lai’s first offence. He had taken upskirt photos of at least 10 other women.
Authorities found more than 100 voyeuristic images on his phone. These were hidden in a passcode-locked folder on his phone.
Lai reportedly viewed the images alone at home or in a toilet. He had also set up his phone to automatically delete the images from the gallery after transferring them to the locked folder.
He pleaded guilty to one charge of taking voyeuristic images without consent. A similar charge was taken into consideration during sentencing.
Offender got married recently
Lai had recently registered his marriage in May before the sentencing.
His lawyer, Low Chun Yee, said Lai is awaiting the keys to his BTO flat and has voluntarily sought treatment since the offence.
Mr Low described Lai as a young offender who understands the gravity of his actions. However, District Judge John Ng noted a concerning pattern in Lai’s behaviour, given the volume of images found.
He stressed that such offences are difficult to detect and called for a strong deterrent message to others.
The offence of voyeurism comes with a jail term of up to two years’ jail, a fine, caning, or any combination of the penalties.
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