2 weeks' jail for man who attempted to record videos of women in toilet during funeral service

SINGAPORE - A 23-year-old man who was attending a funeral service placed his mobile phone in a bathroom and tried to film female mourners relieving themselves.

But Chua Jia Cheng was caught after two women found the device.

He was sentenced on Friday (Jan 31) to two weeks' jail after pleading guilty to one count of attempting to insult the women's modesty.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Kevin Ho said that Chua had gone to help out at the funeral service organised by a 44-year-old man on Dec 24, 2018.

Court documents did not reveal details about the deceased and how Chua was linked to grieving family.

The older man's identity cannot be revealed as a gag order has been imposed to protect the women's identities.

At around 6pm, Chua set his mobile phone camera to the recording mode and placed it under a cupboard in the guest bathroom of the older man's home.

DPP Ho said: "It was within the accused's contemplation that the female friends and family of the (older man) would frequent the toilet.

"The accused set up his mobile phone in the toilet with the intent to insult the modesty of women using the toilet by recording a video footage of them relieving themselves."

But his plan was thwarted when the man's niece and domestic helper found the phone about two hours later.

The niece passed the device to her uncle and Chua then approached the man to reclaim it.

Chua initially denied placing the phone in the bathroom.

He also claimed that he had been charging the device and that somebody else could have placed it there.

According to court documents, the man handed the mobile phone back to Chua, who unlocked it and deleted a video which he had taken.

The older man later checked the device and found no incriminating videos on it.

Despite this, he decided to alert the police on Dec 27, 2018.

Officers later seized from Chua items including his mobile phone but found no incriminating material on them.

DPP Ho, who had asked for Chua to be given at least six weeks' jail, told District Judge Eddy Tham on Friday that the prosecution is considering whether to appeal against the two-week sentence.

In the meantime, Chua was offered bail of $15,000 and ordered to surrender himself at the State Courts on Feb 14 to begin his jail term.

Offenders convicted of insulting a woman's modesty can be jailed for up to a year and fined.