Jail for two men who took upskirt videos

Ex-bank officer jailed for 24 weeks and crane operator for eight weeks in separate cases

Former bank officer Eugene Chong Sin Hwee was jailed for 24 weeks, and crane operator Jeffrey Ng Hong Kiat was jailed for eight weeks. PHOTO: ST FILE

Two men who took upskirt videos of women were handed jail sentences in the State Courts yesterday.

Former bank officer Eugene Chong Sin Hwee, 29, who faced 121 charges of insulting a woman's modesty, was jailed for 24 weeks after admitting to 12 counts.

The bulk of his offences, which took place between March 2013 and September 2014, were committed on escalators.

Now unemployed, the Nanyang Technological University materials science graduate was caught by a 23-year-old woman at Tanjong Pagar MRT station on Sept 16, 2014.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Carene Poh said the woman was going up the escalator when she felt an uneasy sensation. She turned around and saw Chong standing very close to her and holding on to his mobile phone underneath her skirt.

She held on to his shirt and detained him with the help of two others. She looked through the phone's contents and saw that he had taken a video up her skirt of her inner thigh.

Multiple similar videos of unidentified women were on the phone. He admitted he had been taking them since 2011.

In another court, crane operator Jeffrey Ng Hong Kiat, 25, was given eight weeks' jail on two counts of insulting a woman's modesty at Haw Par Villa MRT station on April 29 and Sept 15 last year.

He was also fined $9,000 for having 18 pornographic films at his home in Woodlands Avenue 6. Five similar charges were considered in his sentencing.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Eunice Lau said that a 27-year-old woman was travelling up an escalator at Haw Par Villa station on Sept 15 last year when she felt a touch on her right inner thigh. She turned around and saw Ng with a mobile phone in his hand. She lodged a police report.

Police managed to establish Ng's identity after reviewing closed-circuit television footage.

Investigations showed that Ng had arrived at the MRT station that evening and was on his way to his night shift. He went to the toilet and waited outside for potential female victims that he could film.

The maximum penalty for insulting the modesty of a woman is one year's jail and a fine.

Join ST's WhatsApp Channel and get the latest news and must-reads.

A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Straits Times on October 29, 2016, with the headline Jail for two men who took upskirt videos. Subscribe