Former school teacher admits taking videos of fellow teachers, students and police officer in toilets

SINGAPORE: A teacher at a secondary school took illicit videos of male students and colleagues in the school's toilets, but was nabbed after filming an investigation officer naked in a condominium's clubhouse toilet.

The offender, 49, pleaded guilty on Friday (Feb 25) to four charges of committing public nuisance by filming the victims and making obscene films. Another six charges will be considered in sentencing.

Detailed gag orders imposed by the court prohibit the publication of the victims' identities, as well as the accused's name and school.

The court heard that the offender entered a toilet in the secondary school where a 16-year-old male student was urinating on Oct 30, 2017. The accused moved close to the student and filmed the student urinating, while the latter was unaware.

The video was about 35 seconds long and captured the victim's face and private parts.

The accused filmed another student on Nov 29, 2017, while the boy was changing out of his shorts in the school toilet.

On Apr 15, 2018, the accused entered a toilet at the school where his fellow teacher, a 51-year-old man, was urinating.

The offender began filming his colleague, who did not know that he was being captured on video. 

Later that evening, the offender was in a condominium's clubhouse toilet when a 31-year-old police investigation officer who had just finished his swim at the pool, entered for a shower.

While the officer was naked and drying himself, the accused pretended to look for his condominium access card. He walked around the officer and filmed him, telling him he was trying to see if he had left his card on the shower ledge.

The video captured the investigation officer's private parts as well as his face. 

The officer felt that the offender's behaviour was suspicious, but did not know that the man had been filming him. The officer put on his clothes quickly and went out of the toilet to look for the accused, but could not find him.

He later spotted him and approached him, identifying himself as a police officer. He told the accused that he found his behaviour suspicious, and that he suspected the accused had taken a video of him.

They walked towards the condominium's guard house, with the offender repeatedly asking the officer to give him another chance.

At the guard house, the officer briefed the security guards about what happened and asked the accused to unlock his phone in their presence. He did so and the first thing that appeared was the video of the officer.

When the officer looked through the accused's phone, he saw numerous video recordings of naked men. One of the security guards lodged a police report.

128 OBSCENE FILMS FOUND

The man's phone and laptop were later seized by the police. A total of 128 obscene films that the accused made between February 2017 and April 2018 were found in his devices.

Among these, at least three were of teachers using a men's toilet at the school, and at least two were of students using a boys' toilet in the school. At least 46 were recorded in the condo's clubhouse toilet.

Of the 128 films, at least 117 were recorded without the victims' consent, either at urinals or in the clubhouse toilet. For the urinal videos, the offender would stand at the urinal next to unsuspecting victims and film them.

During an interview at the Institute of Mental Health, the accused said he would watch the films again on his phone or transfer the videos to his laptop to view them on a bigger screen.

He said he would feel guilty and delete them as he was afraid of getting caught.

The prosecution is seeking at least 11 weeks' jail and a S$10,000 fine. He will return to court for sentencing next month.

In a statement after the hearing, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Education said the offender "left the education service in April 2018, and is no longer teaching in any school".

"MOE takes a serious view of staff misconduct and will take disciplinary action against those who fail to adhere to our standards of conduct and discipline, including dismissal from service," she said.