Jail for man who took more than 200 upskirt videos of women after his wife's death

SINGAPORE: After his wife died in a traffic accident, a man took hundreds of upskirt videos of women and was later diagnosed with voyeuristic disorder.

Yap Seng Gim, 45, was given eight months' jail on Wednesday (Jun 30) for his crimes. He pleaded guilty to three counts of insulting a woman's modesty, with another three charges taken into consideration.

According to his lawyer, Yap lost his wife in a traffic accident in 2008 while they were trying to work through a rocky patch in their marriage. Six years later, his father died of cancer.

Yap began taking upskirt videos of women in 2012, the court heard.

This argument did not cut ice with the judge, who pointed out that Yap remarried his current wife in 2012.

The court heard that Yap was nabbed in September 2018 when one of his victims caught him red-handed.

He was following the 36-year-old woman at Esplanade MRT Station at about 8.50am on Sep 14, 2018 as he found her attractive.

He began filming up her skirt on an upriding escalator when the victim turned around suddenly and noticed him on the step behind her.

Suspecting that he was taking upskirt photos of her, the victim grabbed Yap's arm and asked him why he was taking photos of her.

She demanded that he surrender his phone to her, but he began to walk away. The victim shouted: "He took my picture!"

A concerned member of the public took Yap's phone from him and called the police.

Yap's phone was seized and analysed. A total of 217 upskirt videos were found in the device, and he admitted that he targeted women in short skirts on escalators and would masturbate to clips he filmed of them between 2012 and 2018.

Yap was assessed by psychiatrists and diagnosed with voyeuristic disorder at the time of the offences. However, the doctor said Yap maintained a reasonable degree of control and volition over his actions, given the goal-directed nature and level of planning involved, and his efforts to avoid detection.

The prosecutor asked for between nine and 11 months' jail, saying that Yap was goal-oriented, deliberately targeting women in short skirts.

He also committed the offences in public transport areas and did so over six years, said Deputy Public Prosecutor Huo Jiongrui.

HE WAS GOING THROUGH PERIOD OF INTENSE PAIN: DEFENCE

Yap's lawyer said his client was going through a "period of intense pain" when his wife died in 2008 followed by his father in 2014.

"He was shattered but did not give himself time to grieve. He soldiered on in life but was in a daze," said the lawyer. "It was at this time that he started acting on urges to take videos."

He added that his client was remorseful, had sought medical help and saw his arrest as a wake-up call that exposed his "wretchedness".

He cited a letter from Yap's new wife, who talked about the "shock, embarrassment and challenges she has had to endure". She also expressed her concern about the effect of Yap's incarceration on his two young children.

Yap had stopped work to take care of his children and his wife was the breadwinner of the family, said the defence counsel.

The judge said Yap was already in his second marriage during the time of the offences and disagreed with the defence's argument that he did not know what he was doing. She added that Yap appeared to have grown bolder with more videos taken over the years, but considered his guilty plea, clean record and cooperation after his arrest.

She granted his request to defer his jail term to July.

For each charge of insulting a woman's modesty, he could have been jailed for a year, fined or both.