A Taiwanese academic who took upskirt videos of at least 71 women using a pinhole camera attached to his shoe was sentenced to 18 weeks' jail yesterday.
Tsai Wei-feng, 41, who faced 71 charges of insulting modesty, admitted to 10 counts committed at Takashimaya Shopping Centre in Orchard Road on Dec 17 last year. The remaining charges were considered in sentencing. Tsai, who was a senior research fellow at the National Sun Yat-sen University at the time, was caught when a 22-year-old woman - the complainant in the case - noticed him behaving oddly.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Jason Chua told the court the complainant was with three friends in the basement of Takashimaya department store that evening when she felt a bump on her haversack.
She turned and saw Tsai loitering around her friend, placing his left foot below the latter's dress. They followed Tsai and one of them later confronted him as he was leaving.
He was detained by the store's security staff and a pinhole camera from his left shoe with eight video recordings was seized by police.
DPP Chua said the investigation showed that Tsai had enabled the video recording mode in his camera and put it on his left shoe with its camera lens facing up while he was in the toilet, before committing the offences from around 7pm.
He would follow and loiter near female victims, filming underneath their skirts without their knowledge.
In one case, he filmed one victim at least 15 times after loitering around her for a few hours.
Seeking at least 18 weeks' jail, DPP Chua said the most striking aggravating factors were the highly pre-meditated offences and Tsai's substantial number of charges.
Tsai's lawyer, Mr Foo Cheow Ming, said his client - who came to Singapore to visit his counterpart at the National University of Singapore to discuss potential projects - has since lost his job at the university.
He said Tsai, who was diagnosed with voyeurism in 2015, admits his lack of self-control led him to succumb to temptation. He said Tsai, who has taken steps to seek counselling and treatment, was taught a "very dear lesson", and his impetuous moment of folly caused him to lose nearly everything.
Tsai could have been jailed for up to one year and/or fined for each charge of insulting the modesty of a woman.
