SINGAPORE - A former lawyer with top legal firm Drew & Napier changed his mind on contesting charges against him of insulting his then colleague's modesty.

He pleaded guilty on Monday (June 8) to two counts of insulting her modesty by taking photographs of her chest and underwear in 2017, and was sentenced to four weeks' jail by District Judge Samuel Chua.

Two other charges - one related to another incident where he took photographs of her underwear and one of outraging her modesty - were taken into consideration during sentencing.

Both the man, who is no longer practising as a lawyer in Singapore, and his victim cannot be identified because of a gag order to protect the woman.

The man committed his offences in April and October 2017 at the firm's office, which is located at Ocean Financial Centre in Collyer Quay .

Some time in April that year at about 8pm, the man visited the woman, who was working late in her cubicle.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Kelly Ho told the court that the man then decided to take compromising photographs of the woman to "ease his stress".

He came up to her from behind, leaned over her on the pretext of reading her computer screen and rested his body on the back rest of her chair.

Noticing that her bra was exposed through the neckline of her dress, he positioned his mobile phone downwards over her right shoulder and took several photographs of her chest and bra.

He returned to his room in the office, viewed the photographs and was sexually aroused.

"The accused then decided to take more compromising photographs of the victim for his viewing pleasure and to relieve his stress," DPP Ho said.

He went back to her cubicle and managed to take photographs of her panties after talking to her.

On Oct 11 that year, he insulted her modesty again.

At about 2.30pm that day, she was having lunch at her desk when he entered her room in the office.

He sat on the floor beside her and struck up a conversation.

When she swivelled her chair to face him, he could see in between her legs and became sexually aroused.

He pointed the camera lens of his mobile phone, which he was holding in his hand, in the direction of her thighs.

After she turned back to face her desk, he asked her twice to show him her lunch.

Both times, she turned her chair around to face him.

DPP Ho said: "During the above sequence of events, the accused intruded upon the victim's privacy by taking several photographs of her exposed panties using his mobile phone."

When he stood up and spoke to her later, he pressed his thigh against her upper arm before leaving the room.

A month later, the woman made a police report.

The former lawyer went on trial to contest the charges he faced, which started in November last year, but later changed his mind .

In urging the court to impose a jail term of at least six weeks for the former lawyer, DPP Ho noted that the offences were committed at a workplace.

"The workplace setting provides ample opportunities for sexual predators like the offender to get close to their targets on the pretext of having to discuss or showing concern to a colleague," the DPP said.

Defence lawyer Tan Hee Joek said his client's actions were impulsive acts that arose from his then undiagnosed attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

Mr Tan also told the court that his client had deleted the photographs almost immediately after he took them.

For each charge of insulting the woman's modesty, the man could have been jailed for up to a year and fined.