Company's head of tech gets jail for attempting to film female colleagues in toilet

SINGAPORE: The head of technology at a company bought a camera online and stuck it to the ceiling of his workplace toilet, hoping to film his female colleagues in an attempt his lawyer called "amateurish ... beyond belief".

Balasingam-Chow Yu Hui fastened the black and rainbow-striped pinhole video camera against the white ceiling with blu-tack and scotch tape, his lawyer said. However, it fell to the ground within half an hour and was picked up by a potential victim who flagged the crime.

Balasingam, 44, was sentenced to 10 days' jail on Wednesday (Feb 9). He pleaded guilty to a charge each of attempting to insult a woman's modesty and criminal trespass. Two other charges were taken into consideration.

The court heard that Balasingam bought the camera online sometime in May 2019. About a month later, on the morning of Jun 25, 2019, he placed the camera in the women's toilet at his workplace for voyeuristic purposes.

He then left the toilet and resumed work. At about 9am, a 33-year-old woman entered the toilet and noticed a cube-like object on the floor next to the door. She picked it up and realised it looked like a camera with a lens.

She took the camera out and asked her colleagues if the camera belonged to anyone. 

"She also asked Balasingam, who was skilled in technology, whether it belonged to him," said the prosecutor, but no one owned up.

A human resource manager inserted the camera into a computer to view the content and saw Balasingam's face at the start of the recording, fixing the camera.

Fearing that he was found out, Balasingam asked to speak privately with the HR manager and confessed that he was the culprit. He said he was inspired to place cameras in women's toilets by watching online websites such as YouTube.

Five video clips were found in the camera, one of them capturing Balasingam installing the camera for about 1min 27sec. None of the clips successfully captured women relieving themselves, the prosecutor said.

A police report was made and Balasingam was nabbed.

On Wednesday, his lawyer Chia Boon Teck asked for a week's jail, saying the offence was "committed in an amateurish fashion beyond belief".

"The camera was black in colour with rainbow stripes on the side. It was stuck to the ceiling, which is white coloured, with blu-tack and scotch tape. Anyone looking up at the ceiling cannot possibly miss the camera sticking out like a sore thumb," he said.

"It was so amateurishly installed that it fell to the ground within half an hour of installation."

He claimed that this was a "victimless crime", and "an attempt to insult, not an insult".

"The fact that my client bought the camera one month before taping it to the ceiling - contrary to the prosecution saying it's premeditated, I respectfully submit that it shows there was no premeditation," said Mr Chia.

"After buying the camera, if there was premeditation, he would've been so excited and so eager to install it, but that did not happen, your honour."

He added that his client voluntarily sought counselling at the Institute of Mental Health in July 2019 within a month of the offence and has since attended 25 sessions.

In response, Deputy Public Prosecutor Heershan Kaur said even if it was true that Balasingam stuck the camera with blu-tack or scotch tape, it "hardly shows it was amateurish". 

It just happened that the camera dropped by the time the woman arrived, said Ms Kaur. She objected to his description of the offence as a "victimless crime", saying that the colleagues would have been his victims but that the camera was discovered fortuitously.

She also said the time that lapsed between Balasingam's purchase of the camera and the offence suggests planning.

The judge agreed that it was "entirely fortuitous" that the camera did not record anything, but noted the potential harm.

The fact that it was deployed in a cubicle meant that Balasingam expected to capture women at least in partial nudity, he said.

"I accept that the offence was committed in an amateurish fashion," said the judge. "The fact that the camera fell off just half an hour after installation speaks for itself."

However, he said this was not a mitigating factor. He said he was prepared to view Balasingam's counselling sessions as an indication of his desire to change, and noted also his unblemished record before these offences.