Detention for former NTU foreign student who filmed student showering

The former NTU student was sentenced to 14 days' detention in prison for taking a video of a fellow female student showering in one of the university's hostels. PHOTO ILLUSTRATION: ST FILE

SINGAPORE - A former Nanyang Technological University (NTU) student was sentenced on Monday (Jan 20) to 14 days' detention in prison for taking a video of a fellow female student showering in one of the university's hostels.

The 18-year-old foreign national, who cannot be identified due to a gag order, pleaded guilty earlier on the same day to one count of outrage of modesty and one count of criminal trespass.

Two other charges were taken into consideration during sentencing by District Judge May Mesenas.

The victim was showering in the female toilet on the fourth storey of the university hostel at about 9.20pm on Aug 12, 2019, according to court documents.

The female toilets are only located on the third and fourth stories of the hostel, where the rooms for females are located.

At about the same time, the accused who was at the same level of the hostel entered the female toilet. Hearing the sound of running water in the shower cubicles, and decided to record the victim showering.

He then went to an adjacent shower cubicle and placed his mobile phone, with the camera facing upwards, beneath the partition separating both cubicles. He recorded a video of about six seconds, before going into one of the opposite toilet cubicles.

However, the victim had noticed part of the mobile phone appearing from under the partition, along with the red light emitted by the mobile when it was on recording mode.

She was shocked and afraid to confront whoever had filmed her, court documents said. She then sent a text message to her male friend, a fellow NTU student, who then waited for her outside the toilet as she quickly got dressed and left.

She informed her friend of what had happened, before going to look for campus security guards for assistance. Her friend continued to wait for the accused outside the toilet.

The court learnt that the accused, who was hiding in a toilet cubicle, was eventually found by NTU security officers.

District Judge Mesenas gave the teenager a 14-day community sentence known as a Short Detention Order, which means that the accused will not have a criminal record in Singapore.

The judge granted the prosecution's request for the accused to give an undertaking that he would not continue his tertiary education in Singapore.

The accused's lawyer, Mr Che Wei Chin, replied that the accused intends to return to his home country to continue his studies.

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