Jail for man who placed camera in shoe, shopping basket to take upskirt videos

SINGAPORE: A man was on Wednesday (Jul 20) jailed for 10 weeks and fined S$11,500 for taking upskirt videos of women around various shops including Don Don Donki.

Foo Chuan Wei, 38, previously pleaded guilty to four counts of insulting a woman's modesty, one count of possessing obscene films and one count of misappropriating a camera he used to film the women.

Another two charges of insulting a woman's modesty were considered for sentencing.

The court heard that sometime between September and October 2019, Foo was trying on clothes at a shop in VivoCity when he came across a modified camera with a 32GB memory card.

It is not known who the equipment belonged to. Foo took the camera and memory card and left the shop.

On Oct 26, 2019, he placed the modified camera in a basket and used it to record an upskirt video of a woman at Don Don Donki in Orchard Central.

Court documents also showed that he had separately bought another camera online, which he placed in his shoe to record more upskirt videos of women on three occasions.

These other videos were taken at Plaza Singapura on Sep 19, 2019, and at Timezone arcade and an unknown shop in Suntec City on Sep 26, 2019.

Foo was discovered while trying to take a photo of a woman inside a changing room at VivoCity on Nov 2, 2019, according to a call made to police.

When police arrived, they found the modified camera, two memory cards containing the upskirt videos and a phone on Foo.

He was arrested and police also seized his computer the next day. A total of 19 obscene videos were found on those devices.

Foo admitted to downloading some of those videos from pornography websites as upskirt videos were his "fetish", court documents stated.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Tessa Tan sought a jail term of eight to 12 weeks, highlighting the risk that the upskirt recordings of the victims could have been disseminated online.

Defence counsel Genesis Shen asked for a community-based sentence and argued that his client had been attending sessions at the Institute of Mental Health from January to March.

Magistrate Joanne Leong said a community-based sentence was not appropriate as Foo was "well into his adulthood" when he offended at the age of 35.

The court had to send a "strong message" to those who harbour thoughts of abusing technological advancements that make it easier to record and disseminate voyeuristic videos, she said.

There were several aggravating factors in this case, said the magistrate, citing the multiple victims and the use of a miniature camera.

There was also a degree of consideration and planning by Foo, she said, seen in the way he prepared the camera that he bought by placing adhesive tape on it.

Magistrate Leong also gave limited weight to Foo's plea of guilty, noting that he was caught red-handed.

For insulting a woman's modesty, Foo could have been jailed for up to one year, fined or both.

Possession of an obscene film is punishable with jail for up to six months, a fine of up to S$20,000 or both.

Those who dishonestly misappropriate property can be jailed for up to two years, fined or both.