SINGAPORE - A man downloaded an app onto his cellphone to take videos secretly of his co-tenants bathing after he realised that the toilet door of the flat he was staying in did not shut fully.

Machine operator Khor Eng Tong, 22, a Malaysian, managed to film a 20-year-old housemate naked four times in the bathroom at the flat in Pasir Ris over a month early this year.

He was jailed for eight weeks on Tuesday (Nov 7) after he admitted to two counts of insulting the modesty of a woman on Jan 23 and Feb 23, 2017.

The court heard that some time before Jan 23, Khor noticed that the door of the toilet did not shut fully. There was enough space to place his mobile phone in the gap to film his co-tenants as they showered.

He then downloaded the app, "Secret Video Recorder'', onto his Huawei phone. This let him use his phone's camera recording function without any indication on screen that video was being recorded, even when the phone's screen appeared to be switched off.

On Jan 23 at about noon, when the victim was showering, Khor climbed onto the kitchen cabinet by the side of the toilet. He then placed his phone in the gap of the toilet door and filmed the victim while she was bathing. After viewing the video, he deleted it.

A month later, Khor repeated his actwhen the victim was showering. But this time, she saw the mobile phone being held above the toilet door, and pushed the door shut.

"Realising that he had been discovered, the accused quickly left the unit and also disposed of the mobile phone's memory card in order to conceal his tracks,'' said Deputy Public Prosecutor Gabriel Choong Hefeng.

Khor was traced by the police later and admitted to filming the victim while she was in the shower. Thumbnails of the videos he took were recovered via a forensic examination of his phone, which was forfeited.

He could have been jailed for up to one year and/or fined on each charge.