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SINGAPORE – A 28-year-old man was sentenced to seven weeks in jail on Thursday (November 12) for filming a 25-year-old colleague in a women’s bathroom inside his office building.
Gabriel Lim Wei Hng snuck into the women’s bathroom after hearing the women talking there as he exited the adjacent men’s bathroom.
On Thursday, Lim pleaded guilty in court to one count of insulting a woman’s modesty and another count of burglary related to the incident that occurred on July 18 last year.
Four additional charges related to two similar prior incidents were taken into consideration during sentencing.
Deputy Prosecutor (DPP) Lim Shin Hui told the court that Lim had “wanted to take a video of a woman using the toilet” when he heard female voices coming from him.
He went to the cubicle closest to the entrance and filmed the victim relieving themselves in it holding his mobile phone over the top of the cubicle, DPP Lim said.
The victim was then naked and screamed when she saw the mobile phone.
“The defendant panicked, withdrew his mobile phone and left the women’s bathroom. He then went to the men’s bathroom to erase the video he had recorded of the victim and then returned to his office,” DPP Lim said.
However, the victim and another witness who was in the bathroom at the time reported the incident to the security office. They reviewed closed-circuit television footage showing the hallway outside the bathroom and recognized Lim as a colleague, he said.
In mitigation, Lim’s defense attorney, Mr. Favian Kang, said Lim’s crime was an “impromptu” decision and that he is genuinely sorry.
He also said Lim’s crimes had a lower degree of intrusion into the victim’s privacy, as he had filmed the victim from a “top-down” perspective and not sliding the phone under the lower opening of the cubicle.
However, District Judge Marvin Bay said he was “not convinced there was a valid distinction” for that. He also noted that the multiple incidents demonstrate more an “established modus operandi” than an impulsive impulse to commit the crimes.
“Unfortunately, crimes of this nature are too frequent and therefore dissuasive sentences are required,” the judge said.
Lim will serve his sentence as of December 14.
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