A man who worked as an IT support technician was jailed for taking multiple upskirt videos of teachers at a school where he was employed.
On June 5, Chan Ding Jie, 30, pleaded guilty to three voyeurism charges and was sentenced to 12 weeks’ jail.
The school he worked at cannot be named to protect the identity of the teachers.
Deputy Public Prosecutor June Ngian said four teachers were victims of Chan, and that the videos he took captured the teachers’ buttocks and underwear region, with one video capturing a teacher’s chest area.
On one occasion in February 2024, a teacher called Chan over to her cubicle in the school staff room as she needed help with an issue on her computer.
While he was assisting her, he used his mobile phone and recorded a video with the selfie camera and angled it such that his phone would be under the teacher’s skirt.
In April 2024, he took an upskirt video of another teacher using the same method.
Chan also downloaded a teacher’s intimate videos onto his own laptop. It was not mentioned in court documents how he had managed to get the videos.
His acts came to light when he attempted to take an upskirt video of a 19-year-old teenager in a lift in the same month.
He stood behind her in the lift and pointed his camera below her shorts. But before Chan could take a video, the victim saw what he was doing from the reflection of the mirror in the lift and stopped him.
He was arrested after she called the police, and the voyeuristic videos of the teachers were discovered on his phone.
Seeking 13½ weeks’ jail, DPP Ngian said the offences involved a degree of furtiveness, planning and premeditation on Chan’s part.
“The accused had targeted his own colleagues in his attempt to satisfy his own desires and put them in danger of embarrassment and humiliation by keeping the videos on his phone,” she said.
The DPP added that Chan had also targeted a young woman in a lift near her home, a place where she deserved to feel safe.
Those found guilty of voyeurism can be jailed for up to two years, fined, caned, or face any combination of these punishments.
Nadine Chua for The Straits Times
