Sales manager jailed 12 weeks, fined for filming women changing in their bedrooms
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SINGAPORE — Along with another man he had met on Sammyboy Forum 20 years ago, a sales manager hatched a plot to find women dressing for work in their homes.
While his friend kept a lookout, Lo Ji Sum would stick his iPhone through the window grilles to take videos and photographs of women getting ready for the day. He did this about 15 times in the span of a month in July 2016.
On Tuesday (July 31), Lo was jailed for 12 weeks — or about three months — and fined S$20,000 for his actions. The 44-year-old had pleaded guilty to six charges of insulting a woman's modesty, transmitting obscene materials, and having obscene films.
His alleged accomplice, shipping executive Khoo Fook Mun, also 44, has not been dealt with.
The court heard that Lo and Khoo met on the sex-themed forum Sammyboy more than two decades ago. They would use the website and other similar sites to watch videos of women in various states of undress.
Sometime in early July 2016, they formulated a plan to roam around a block of flats in the Queenstown area, in order to view women changing. They decided to do this at around 8am as they thought the women would be getting ready for work then.
They visited three Housing and Development Board (HDB) flats near Khoo's workplace, which had coffee shops nearby that they could patronise. As they ate, they would take note of the units that had lights on, before checking them out after they had finished eating to see if any women were inside.
Khoo kept a lookout while Lo recorded videos of their victims. They also picked units with silver grilles and windows so Lo's silver iPhone 6S Plus would be less visible.
In total, they carried out the plan about 15 times that month.
In one instance, on July 25, 2016, the pair noticed that a unit inhabited by a pair of sisters had an unsecured window. The bedroom shared by the 29-year-old and 33-year-old faced the common corridor.
Lo seized the chance to take two videos and two photographs of the younger sister changing from a towel into work clothes.
He then walked away. When she left the unit, Lo went back to the window and took more videos and photos of the older sister also changing into work clothes, as well as putting on make-up.
When she turned around, she saw Lo's phone and shouted. He immediately withdrew the device and ran away with Khoo.
A few minutes later, Lo sent the two videos of the younger sister to Khoo.
Through investigations, the police established their identities and decided to stake out the area to catch them. On Aug 1, 2016, sometime before 7.14am, the duo arranged to meet up at one of the Queenstown HDB blocks, where they were subsequently arrested.
The police carried out further raids and seized two laptops and three flash drives belonging to Lo. Investigations revealed that they contained 413 obscene films and 1,424 films without a valid certificate.
Besides the photos and videos of women changing, Lo's phone also contained three obscene photos of himself and his wife in the nude. Further investigations revealed that sometime in 2015, Lo sent these photos to Khoo.
For insulting the modesty of a woman, Lo could have been jailed up to one year and/or fined. For transmitting obscene materials, he could have been jailed up to three months and/or fined.
He could also have been fined at least S$100 for each film without a valid certificate. For each obscene film, he could have been fined at least S$500 and/or jailed up to six months.
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