Teacher gets 24 weeks' jail for taking obscene videos of colleagues and other women

Wong Loo Wah, 33, faced 47 charges but pleaded guilty to six counts of intruding and attempting to intrude into the privacy of a woman. PHOTO: ST GRAPHICS

SINGAPORE - A primary school teacher who recorded videos of his female colleagues and others on more than 40 occasions was jailed for 24 weeks on Friday (July 21).

Wong Loo Wah, 33, faced 47 charges but pleaded guilty to six counts of intruding and attempting to intrude into the privacy of a woman.

When he was arrested on Dec 8, 2015, police found 1,879 obscene videos and 765 obscene photographs in his mobile phone, laptops and portable hard disk.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Chew Xin Ying said Wong's his first victim was a 26-year-old woman he befriended through an online dating website.

On Dec 7, 2015, Wong met her at Nex shopping mall in Serangoon Central. He was walking beside her when he discreetly switched on the video recording function of his mobile phone.

When they were on an escalator, he stood on a lower step and held his phone to record under the victim's skirt. He managed to take a video of her thighs and underwear.

Earlier that year, on Aug 5, he was shopping with his 27-year-old colleague at Sea View Aquarium in Seletar West Farmway when he pointed his phone at her chest area when she bent forward to pick up some items. He managed to capture images of her chest area and brassiere.

On July 28 that year, Wong took an upskirt video of a 24-year-old colleague in the school hall during assembly. On April 27 the same year, he saw his colleague, who has since left the school, in the band room and took an upskirt video of her. He also took a similar upskirt video of an unknown woman on an escalator at an MRT station on Dec 3 (2015).

On Dec 8, after an event at Pemimpin Drive, he overheard his 25-year-old colleague say that she was going to shower in the unisex toilet.

He went into the toilet before her and placed his mobile phone, with the video recording function on, together with his black sling bag on a ledge above the toilet bowl, intending to take a video of her showering.

But the woman saw the mobile phone and switched off the video recording function. She did not remove the phone from the toilet.

After she left, Wong re-entered the toilet to retrieve his bag and phone. He deleted the videos that were taken earlier in the toilet.

In mitigation, Wong's lawyer Kalidass Murugaiyan said his client suffers from a voyeuristic disorder and is receiving treatment from a psychiatrist and psychologist.

Wong could have been jailed for up to one year and/or fined for insulting the modesty of a woman. For attempting to do so, he could have been jailed for up to six months and/or fined.

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