Myanmar national jailed 20 weeks for using pen with pinhole camera to film co-tenants showering

SINGAPORE - A Myanmar national planted a pen with a pinhole camera in the toilet of a maisonette to capture his female co-tenants showering.

Pyae Phyo Aung managed to take nine videos of women taking their shower between Oct 23 and 24, 2016. The video clips were between 20 seconds to 10 minutes long.

On Thursday (Nov 9), the 32-year-old, who was then doing a course in nautical studies at the Singapore Polytechnic, was jailed for 20 weeks after he admitted to three charges of intruding into the privacy of a woman.

Nine other charges including perverting the course of justice and two under the Films Act were considered during his sentencing.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Raja Mohan said a co-tenant, aged 31, was cleaning the toilet on Oct 27, 2016 when she found the pinhole camera pen, which had a green blinking light.

Suspecting that something was amiss, she handed the pen to the main tenant. A report was lodged.

That afternoon, Aung and the main tenant went to the neighbourhood police centre to hand over the pen.

Aung denied being the pen's owner, but came clean that evening. He revealed that he placed the pen in the bathroom to take videos of the female tenants showering. He then viewed the video clips on his laptop.

Of the 13 video clips on the laptop, nine had footage of unknown women showering.

Aung's lawyer T.M. Sinnadurai said his client, a trainee ship officer, was remorseful and had enrolled himself for counselling sessions to deal with his emotional troubles.

He said Aung had since passed his Class 2 Certificate of Competency examination from the Maritime and Port Authority, and this placed him in good stead to become a marine captain in time.

Aung could have been jailed for up to one year and/or fined for each charge of insulting the modesty of a woman.

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