18 months' probation for teen who put teacher's upskirt photos on social media site Tumblr

SINGAPORE - An 18-year-old who was angry with his teacher came across upskirt videos of hers and uploaded edited screenshots of the clips on social media site Tumblr.

In the same post, he also uploaded pictures of the teacher at her workplace and with her family members, and captioned the post: "Upskirt pictures. Can all of you guys, reblog, like and share this... enjoy the pictures."

On Tuesday (Feb 8), the teenager, who cannot be named as he was below 18 when he committed the crime, was sentenced to 18 months of probation.

The secondary school he attended cannot be named as well.

As part of his probation, he must remain indoors from 10pm till 6am, perform 80 hours of community service, and attend psycho-education on healthy sexuality and responsible sexual conduct.

His mother was bonded for $5,000 to ensure his good behaviour.

An offender put on probation will not have a criminal record of the offence.

The teenager had earlier pleaded guilty to a single charge of transmitting obscene images. Two other similar charges were taken into consideration for his sentencing.

The court heard that some time between April and May 2019, the teenager found out that at least two upskirt videos had been recorded of his teacher and got a screenshot of each of these videos from his schoolmates.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Cheng You Duen told the court in an earlier hearing that the boy then edited and altered the colour and orientation of the pictures to create several variations of the screenshots and uploaded them, along with pictures of the teacher at her workplace and with her family, on Tumblr.

On May 21, 2019, the teacher lodged a police report saying these pictures had been uploaded on pornographic websites.

Those convicted of transmitting any obscene material online can be punished with a jail term of up to three months, a fine, or both.

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