Serial voyeur gets 15 months' jail, caning for filming friends showering in his home, molesting another friend

SINGAPORE — Having invited eight friends to his home for a gathering in 2021, Hui Hsien Han asked them each to take a shower in his home.

Secretly, however, Hui had placed a spy camera he had bought on Shopee in the bathroom without their knowledge. He was found out after his female guest discovered the device hidden in the pocket of a shirt that hung off a rack.

In court on Wednesday (Feb 14), Hui, 28, was sentenced to 15 months’ imprisonment and two strokes of the cane after pleading guilty to one count of voyeurism and one count of molestation. 

The court heard that he had also recorded the same victim on an earlier occasion and another unidentified female, all while they were showering at his home. He also was convicted of molesting another female victim who had attended the same gathering on a separate occasion.

The victims cannot be named due to a court order protecting their identities.

SPY CAMERA IN BATHROOM

Hui had known both of the identified victims, who were both 23 years old at the time, for around five years since he attended university with them. 

The court heard that he invited around eight friends — four female and four males — to his home for a gathering sometime in 2021. The location of the home was redacted from court documents.

There, he asked each of his friends to individually take a shower. Before the first victim took her shower, Hui went into the bathroom on the pretext of placing a towel in the bathroom for her.

In reality, the man had placed a spy camera that looked like a pen, which Hui bought from Shopee around two weeks before. He did so to record his friend while showering, court documents said. 

After she undressed, thereby exposing her chest, she noticed the pen in the shirt hanging on the door. She checked the pen out of curiosity, before realising it was a spy camera containing a secure digital (SD) card in it.

She immediately dressed and left the bathroom with the SD card, before telling the three other women present at the gathering over phone messages that she had found a spy camera. 

One of the three female friends at the gathering retrieved the spy camera from the bathroom. The four women then left Hui’s house around 4am, and went to one of their homes to discuss what they had found.

This turned out to be the home of another of Hui's victims, who he had molested.

Court documents did not say if Hui knew his ploy had been discovered at this point.

There, the group found around two minutes of footage of the first victim undressing and partially nude in the spy camera.

She then made a police report against Hui a few hours later on the same day.

The police later found two other voyeuristic recordings on Hui’s computer. These videos included a recording of the first victim showering around three to four years prior to the incident in 2021, which contained almost four minutes of footage that showed her face and nude body. 

Another video on his computer featured an unidentified woman Hui had met through a mutual friend. The woman was also filmed showering at his home sometime between 2017 and 2018.

On both occasions, the man had taken the video by climbing out of a window in his home and walking along the parapet to record the women on his mobile phone, through gaps in the toilet window.

The two recordings found on his computer were the subject of the two charges taken into consideration for sentencing. 

MOLESTATION OF FRIEND 

On Feb 15, 2021, nine days after the first victim made a police report for the instance of voyeurism, Hui's other victim decided to report the molestation, which occurred four months prior. 

In her case, the court heard that she had invited Hui and four other friends for a night of drinking whisky and playing games, after which the group spent the night at her home.

The next morning, Hui laid down beside her in the bedroom and hugged her from behind when she was tipsy. This prompted her to leave the room.

Court documents said she later returned to her room to rest, but woke up again to Hui molesting her by hugging her and touching her inner thighs. Despite her pushing his hand away, Hui exposed and touched her chest area. 

Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Norine Tan told the court that the second victim felt “very uncomfortable” and moved towards the wall, before Hui left the home. 

The second victim initially blocked Hui on social media platforms but later talked to him again. He apologised to her. 

However, she decided to report the incident to the police upon realising that Hui “had not changed” and was not remorseful, after hearing about the incident of voyeurism from her friend, said DPP Tan. 

The prosecution sought a total sentence of 16 to 19 months’ jail and three strokes of the cane. 

“Ever since the incident, the second victim has been feeling disturbed, disgusted at herself and often suffers from insomnia. She finds it difficult to trust her male friends and has been seeking counselling to try to get over the incident,” said DPP Tan. 

Hui's defence counsel, Mr Sunil Sudheesan from law firm Quahe Woo and Palmer, argued that the man had acted in the “spur of the moment” at the point of the molestation and was acting “out of character” while intoxicated. 

On the voyeurism offences, Mr Sudheesan cited Hui’s diagnosis of having voyeuristic disorder and said the man had since taken “active steps" to manage his condition after realising its severity and how it is triggered. 

In sentencing, District Judge Lee Lit Cheng said that Hui had persisted in violating the second victim despite her rejecting his advances, and he had abused her trust as a friend while in her own bedroom. 

Hui’s voyeuristic actions were not a result of an “uncharacteristic one-off” incident, but were reflective of a “series of misconduct” over the years, said the judge. 

For molestation, Hui could have been jailed for up to two years, be fined or caned, or receive any combination of these punishments. 

Those convicted of voyeurism can be jailed for up to two years, or be fined, or receive a combination of such punishments.