A nurse was sentenced to 12 weeks in jail yesterday for surreptitiously taking videos and photographs of his female colleagues as they used a unisex bathroom at their hospital.

The 27-year-old Singaporean man - whose name and workplace cannot be published to protect his victims' identities - pleaded guilty to four counts of insulting a woman's modesty.

Four other charges for similar offences were considered during sentencing.

The man committed his offences last year and The Straits Times understands that he is no longer working at the hospital.

The court heard that he was found out on May 11 last year, when he went to the bathroom at the same time as a 24-year-old nurse he was attracted to.

He slipped his mobile phone under a cubicle divider to film her, but she spotted it. She then alerted the police, who arrested him and seized his phone.

They found that he had used it to record at least seven other female colleagues.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Shenna Tjoa said the man had committed the offences "out of curiosity" to see how the women looked without clothes on. She added: "If he saw that the person in the adjoining cubicle was a male, he would stop taking photographs, but if it was a female, he would take a few more photographs for his own viewing pleasure."

Defence lawyer Charlene Nah, who pleaded for her client to be sentenced to not more than six weeks in jail, said the man is remorseful, adding: "His actions thereafter arose from youthful foolishness... which was completely out of character... he has recognised his mistakes, which he will never commit again."

Before sentencing, District Judge Adam Nakhoda said that the man "knew what he wanted to do".

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