Probation for NSF who secretly recorded sex with girlfriend and uploaded clips to Twitter

SINGAPORE: A full-time national serviceman who committed multiple voyeuristic offences including secretly recording himself having sex with his girlfriend received probation on Monday (Nov 8).

The 20-year-old man, who cannot be named due to gag orders protecting the victims' identities, was given 21 months' probation and ordered to perform 60 hours of community service.

He will have to undergo an offence-specific treatment programme, and cannot use electronic devices with camera functions unless a probation officer or psychologist assesses that he can.

He pleaded guilty to five charges including transmitting obscene objects by electronic means, insulting a woman's modesty and recording a private act without consent. Another eight charges were considered in sentencing.

The court heard that the offender was in a relationship with the first victim. Between February 2018 and February 2019, he recorded 18 videos of having sex with the victim and of other sex acts.

He did so either while she was facing away from him, with his handphone hidden at the side of the bed, or while she was blindfolded.

The offender had given his girlfriend the usernames and passwords to his Twitter and Google Drive accounts, and she logged into his Twitter account on Mar 29 this year, where she realised that he had uploaded four videos of them having sex, and one of her performing oral sex on him while blindfolded.

The offender's Twitter account was set to private, but each clip - ranging from 12 seconds long to 1 min and 9 secs in length - had been viewed 15 to 22 times.

The victim then logged into the offender's Google Drive account and found the 18 videos and five photos he had taken of her having sex with him or engaging in other sex acts. She had not given her consent to the taking of any of these videos or photographs.

The victim found an unrelated upskirt video of an unknown woman in the offender's Google Drive, and he later admitted recording it in a lift on Jan 2, 2020.

The offender also preyed on a second victim, whose relationship to him was not specified in court documents.

He had coaxed her into taking a video call with him in the wee hours of Sep 10, 2020, while she was showering. They discussed starting a business during the video call, and he recorded her for more than 14 minutes without her consent, before uploading it to his Google Drive.

He went for a staycation with this victim on Sep 19, 2020, with two other friends. When their friends left the hotel room to buy food, the offender had sex with the victim and covered her face with a blanket.

He then recorded four videos of the sexual intercourse without the victim's consent.

The prosecutor did not object to probation as recommended, but asked for additional conditions such as for the offender's father, brother and godmother to be referred to a family service centre.

He said the offender's father, brother and godmother had "kind of minimised the seriousness of his behaviour and externalised some of his responsibility".

He flagged a "minor concern" that the offender has not stopped his viewing of pornography nor masturbation habit, though he claims to have reduced these.

However, the prosecutor said he was rather encouraged by the offender's current behaviour in army, as his performance was assessed to be very good.

The offender's brother and godmother furnished a bond of S$5,000 to ensure his good behaviour during the period of probation.