SINGAPORE: A former lecturer with the Institute of Technical Education was jailed for four months on Tuesday (Sep 6) for taking multiple upskirt photos and videos on campus.
The 48-year-old man’s victims included students and a female target in the cafeteria of an Institution of Technical Education.
A gag order was imposed barring the publication of any information that might identify the victims.
The man pleaded guilty to two counts of insulting a woman’s modesty and a third charge of attempting to insult a woman’s modesty. Three other charges were taken into consideration for sentencing.
The court heard that the offender was working at an Institute of Technical Education at the time of the offences.
On Oct 25, 2019, he was teaching a Life Skills class when he spotted a student wearing a tight skirt revealing her legs. He selected her as his target and walked towards her with his phone camera switched on.
On the pretext of assisting her with her work, the man placed his phone at the edge of the table before taking several photos using the volume button on his phone.
When the class ended, he ensured no one was around and looked at the photos before realising he had failed to capture any images or videos of the student.
Meanwhile, the student had spotted the lecturer positioning his phone camera lens towards her skirt.
She immediately texted her father, sister and classmates, and her sister reported the matter to the police.
His phone was seized and at least 133 upskirt images and 17 videos were extracted from it.
Police investigations revealed the offender’s modus operandi: He would look out for female students with short skirts around the school, or students sitting improperly in his class.
He would then turn on the camera function on his phone before approaching his target under the guise of teaching her. He would then photograph or record up the student’s skirt and review the footage after the lesson was over.
By the accused’s own estimates, he filmed such upskirt videos and photos over the course of four to five months at a frequency of once a fortnight.
He took an upskirt photo and video of an unidentified female victim in the school cafeteria on Jun 5, 2019, and an upskirt video of another victim at the school’s general office on Jul 29, 2019.
The prosecutor asked for between four and six months’ jail, saying that the offender had abused his position of trust and authority as a lecturer. He had a number of upskirt photos and videos, and committed the offences in a covert manner, she said.
For each charge of insulting a woman’s modesty, he could have been jailed for up to a year and fined.