Jail for former NSF who snapped pictures of woman in toilet at workplace

Joyner Tai Liang Yun pleaded guilty to four counts of insulting a woman's modesty and three criminal trespass charges. ST PHOTO: WONG KWAI CHOW

SINGAPORE - A full-time national serviceman (NSF) with the Singapore Armed Forces followed a woman into a toilet at his workplace and used his mobile phone to snap pictures of her in a cubicle.

Joyner Tai Liang Yun, who was an administrative support assistant before becoming operationally ready in July last year, fled when the 33-year-old woman spotted the device and shouted.

His laptop was later seized as a case exhibit after he committed the offence on Aug 8, 2017, and it was found to contain videos of other women in toilets.

Tai, 24, who pleaded guilty to four counts of insulting a woman's modesty and three charges of criminal trespass, was sentenced on Monday (Sept 2) to 14 weeks' jail.

Twelve other charges were taken into consideration during sentencing.

The court heard that Tai had committed such offences even before he enlisted for NS on July 11, 2016.

He was a polytechnic student in July 2015 when he spotted a woman entering a toilet at his school. He waited for about one minute before entering the toilet.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Regina Lim said: "The accused was curious about what was happening inside the cubicle that the female was in."

Tai decided to "secretly take a video of her while she was inside the cubicle so that he could watch it later and satisfy his curiosity", said DPP Lim.

After that, he entered an empty cubicle next to the one the woman was in and used his device to record a video of her.

He left the toilet without being seen soon after, the court heard. The name of his school has been redacted from court documents.

On Nov 11, 2016, he recorded a video of a woman changing her clothes in a toilet at his workplace.

About a month later, he was with his aunt at a Rochor Road supermarket when he snapped upskirt pictures of a fellow shopper.

Before sentencing him on Monday, District Judge Adam Nakhoda said that Tai's offences "cannot be attributed to youthful folly", as he had committed most of them after turning 21.

Tai is now out on bail of $15,000 and will surrender himself at the State Courts on Oct 31 to begin serving his sentence.

For each count of insulting a woman's modesty, he could have been jailed for up to a year and fined.

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