An American man was sentenced to nine months' jail on Wednesday for using his mobile phone to take pictures of two women showering and outraging the modesty of three women in backpackers' hostels.

The victims were aged between 18 and 29.

On April 26 this year, Michael Sylvester Williams Jr, 24, had pulled down the shorts and panties of a victim at the Pillow Talk hostel in Hamilton Road. Here on a social visit pass, he had also used his mobile phone to take a picture of a woman at a Chinatown hostel on May 5. On May 19, he tried this on another woman at a hostel in Bendemeer.

Three weeks later, he stroked the buttocks of a woman sleeping at a Geylang hostel. Then on June 13, he caressed the back of a 26-year-old Polish woman sleeping on the bunk above him. When she confronted him, he gave the excuse that he was searching for his charger.

He had earlier refused legal representation from Mr Amarjit Singh of Gloria James-Civetta law firm which had been appointed by the American Embassy to defend him.