A technician who took an upskirt video of a woman on an MRT escalator was jailed for five weeks on Monday.

Victor Soliman Gotengco Jr, 33, a Filipino, admitted to intruding into the privacy of the 22-year-old accounts executive at Yishun MRT station on Aug 22 this year. A court heard that Gotengco Jr was travelling on the escalator at the Yishun MRT station to the train platform when he took his out his iPhone, activated the video recording mode and walked up to the woman who was a few steps ahead of him. The woman, dressed in a top and skirt, was going to meet her boyfriend who was at the platform.

Gotengco Jr positioned the phone underneath the victim's skirt to capture a video recording. Her boyfriend, who had been observing her as she entered the train station through the gantry and took the escalator, saw what Gotengco Jr did and confronted him. Gotengco Jr kept his phone and tried to enter a train at the platform but was detained. The boyfriend sought help from SMRT staff to call the police.

Four other similar charges of insulting the modesty of unknown women were considered during his sentencing. He could have been jailed for up to one year and/or fined for the offence.