Jail for 'reprehensible' ex-church manager who used pinhole camera to film women showering at the premises, shared videos

SINGAPORE — A church volunteer who later worked as a staff member used his building access card to sneak into the female bathroom in the wee hours to install a pinhole camera that he used to film women showering.

Darren Yeo Wei Hong knew some of the women he filmed and stored their videos under their names before sharing them on social media to people he thought would recognise them in order to see their reaction.

Senior District Judge Bala Reddy called Yeo's conduct "reprehensible" as he "clandestinely" filmed women on nearly 100 occasions from 2014 to 2015 using the pinhole camera, which was disguised as a smoke detector.

Yeo, now aged 34, also took women's bras at the church, then photographed himself wearing them.

On Thursday (June 1), he pleaded guilty to 11 charges including insulting a woman's modesty, transmitting obscene videos and theft.

A total of 16 other similar charges were taken into consideration during sentencing.

As a court room filled with his victims and their supporters looked on, Yeo was sentenced to one year's jail.

The names of the victims and the church cannot be published due to a court order.

RECORDED VICTIMS SHOWERING

From around 2004, Yeo had volunteered extensively at the church in various capacities, including as a guitarist. 

From 2013 to 2016, he worked there full-time as an administrative manager.

Both as a volunteer and staff member, Yeo was given an access card that allowed him to enter the church premises.

Sometime in June 2014, he made an online purchase of a video camera disguised as a smoke detector, which could record videos that could be saved on an SD memory card.

After installing the camera, Yeo would use his access card to return to the female bathroom when no one was around to retrieve the SD card. At least once, he even shifted the camera to change the angle of the footage captured.

The videos of four women showering, who are the subject of the charges, variously showed their face, chest and private parts. 

Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Vincent Ong said Yeo knew that the victims and other female members would use the toilet to shower and had intended to record them showering naked without their consent.

Each time, after retrieving the SD card, Yeo would use his laptop to download the videos and he also saved some of it on his external hard disk drive. 

Yeo would save these videos according to the woman's name if he knew and recognised her. 

This external hard disk drive was subjected to forensic examination during investigations and was found to also contain 690 obscene films, which Yeo downloaded off the internet to watch.

Despite resigning from his position as a staff member at the church in 2016, Yeo continued to attend weekly prayer sessions.

He eventually removed the camera before the church shifted out of the building, because he was afraid that others might discover it.

VIDEO DISTRIBUTION

Investigations revealed that sometime before April 5, 2019, Yeo had created two Instagram accounts to send the videos of the women showering to other individuals.

Yeo used one of the accounts to communicate with Mr Edwin Ang, who was a former church attendee. 

He asked Mr Ang if he wanted to "see naked footages" of the female attendees.

Recognising five of the women in the videos, Mr Ang made a police report.

It was later discovered that Yeo had also contacted another former male attendee and sent him multiple videos as well through Instagram.

Yeo admitted in investigations that he circulated the videos to others because he was curious to see how they would react to the videos, DPP Ong said.

STEALING BRAS

The court also heard that between 2010 and 2012, the church held recreational activities where attendees needed a change of clothing.

Some of them would keep their change of clothing in their bags in a common room of the church's premises, to which Yeo had access.

Yeo would wait until there was no one else around before rummaging through the bags of the female attendees to look for bras.

After taking the bras, he took them to the male toilet and photographed them before putting them on, and taking photos of himself posing in them.

Yeo then returned the bras to the bags without anyone noticing.

WHAT THE PROSECUTION AND DEFENCE SAY

Addressing the court, DPP Ong said that the present case was not about "sin or forgiveness" but rather the appropriate sentence for Yeo who had committed multiple offences with a high degree of "intrusion and identifiability".

He highlighted that Yeo carried out his act in an elaborate manner, which involved premeditation and planning, rather than out of a "momentary lapse of judgement", for example.

DPP Ong also stressed that Yeo had kept the videos in a hard drive for four to five years, which is a "significant amount of time", and that is why the court must send a signal that this kind of behaviour cannot be condoned.

Representing Yeo, defence lawyer Nathan Shashidran from Withers Khattarwong LLP asked the court to consider a sentence of between 8.5 and 10 months instead of the prosecution's 12 to 15 months since Yeo has acknowledged his wrongdoing.

Mr Shashidran said that Yeo asks for forgiveness and also regrets having caused "harm and hurt" to the victims, and has since sought help from a psychiatrist to ensure this does not happen again. 

Mr Shashidran also said that while Yeo accepts that a strong message must be sent over his criminal conduct, the court should "show compassion" to Yeo who recently married and "wants to move on with his life".

WHAT THE JUDGE SAYS

In delivering his sentence, Senior District Judge Reddy said that Yeo's offences were "undeniably serious in nature" and his deliberate intrusion with his premeditated act to record the videos of women showering without their consent had resulted in a "gross invasion" of the victims' privacy.

He added that Yeo further "compounded his offences" by distributing the videos, "amplifying the harm" caused to the victims and "perpetuating their violation" as the videos showed a "complete disregard" for the dignity and autonomy of the women.

Those found guilty of distributing obscene videos can be jailed for up to three months or fined, or both.

A person guilty of possessing obscene films can be jailed for up to 12 months or fined up to S$1,000 for each film, or both.

Anyone found guilty of intruding upon the privacy of a woman can be jailed for up to one year or fined, or both.

For committing theft in any building, an offender can be jailed for up to seven years and fined.