Man jailed for taking video of 15-year-old in changing room

For intruding on the privacy of a shopper, 34-year-old Mohamed Yousuf Abuthahir was sentenced to a month in jail. PHOTO: ST GRAPHICS

A 15-year-old shopper was planning to show a new sari to her sister when she took a video of herself in a clothing store's changing room.

But the video revealed more - that a camera was watching her as she undressed.

Yesterday, for intruding on the privacy of the shopper, 34-year-old Mohamed Yousuf Abuthahir was sentenced to a month in jail, backdated to Jan 15.

On the night of Jan 9, when the girl was in the changing room of Fashion Palace in Buffalo Road, where he worked, he placed his mobile phone beneath the changing room door with its camera facing her.

According to court documents, it was around 8pm when the victim went to the second level of the shop. The business relationship manager was the only employee working on that floor then, and attended to her.

She went into the changing room to try on a sari and took a video of herself, planning to show it to her sister before deciding if she would buy it.

Later that night, when reviewing the footage, she noticed a white mobile phone in the gap between the bottom of the changing room door and the floor.

Recalling that the male employee was the only person outside the changing room, she lodged a police report the following day.

Closed circuit camera footage showed the man walking to the changing room with a white mobile phone in hand around 8.20pm.

He later admitted taking the video.

The video had footage of the victim changing clothes and, at one point, her upper body was covered by only her bra.

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A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Straits Times on January 23, 2016, with the headline Man jailed for taking video of 15-year-old in changing room. Subscribe