NTU student jailed for upskirt videos

A Nanyang Technological University (NTU) student who claimed he was stressed out by his studies started taking upskirt videos of women at MRT stations and at the university.

For nine months, third-year student Chong Yen Bin took upskirt videos using his smartphone to capture glimpses of bare buttocks - which he said he was "addicted" to seeing.

He was finally stopped on Sept 19 last year when a passer-by saw him following closely behind a woman near the Toa Payoh Bus Interchange while holding his mobile phone in a suspicious manner.

The 24-year-old was yesterday jailed for 18 weeks after pleading guilty to six counts of insulting a woman's modesty, with another 20 similar charges taken into consideration for sentencing.

The court heard that Mr Yusman Yusoff, 42, saw Chong behaving suspiciously and alerted Public Transport Security Command officers in the area.

The officers detained Chong at Toa Payoh MRT station.

Chong's phone was found to contain several videos showing unknown women's underwear or glimpses of their bare buttocks, and he was arrested.

A forensic examination of the phone found 26 more videos of a similar nature, said Deputy Public Prosecutor Shana Poon.

Chong admitted taking such videos since the start of last year, as he felt stressed over his studies and was "addicted" to seeing the buttocks of women.

An NTU spokesman said Chong is still a student at the university. He said students found guilty of criminal conduct by the courts "will be subject to disciplinary proceedings which may lead to the student being expelled or suspended from the university".

Meanwhile, a National University of Singapore (NUS) student faced additional charges yesterday for allegedly filming several women showering on campus, and for taking upskirt videos at an MRT station and in an office.

Joel Rasis Ismail, 26, was charged in May with one count each of criminal trespass and insulting the modesty of a 23-year-old woman by recording her showering on the sixth level of Kuok Foundation House at NUS on May 11.

Yesterday, he was slapped with nine more charges of a similar nature; three of the charges were for cases that took place in 2016.

In one case in March this year, he allegedly took three videos of an unknown woman in the shower on the third level of Kuok Foundation House.

An NUS spokesman said Joel has been suspended for three semesters and must attend counselling and rehabilitation sessions. These will be part of his formal educational record.

"The student may resume his studies only after he is certified fit for return to campus by relevant professionals after the suspension," said the spokesman.

Another disciplinary hearing may be convened if court proceedings reveal any new information that was not the subject matter of the previous hearing.