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Armed with a modified hidden camera hidden inside his laptop bag, the former professor at the Institute of Technical Education prowled shopping malls following middle-aged women in short skirts.
Chia Teck Huat, 41, took videos under the skirts of more than 300 women in just four months in 2017 until they caught him.
Highlighting the large number of victims and the high degree of planning and premeditation in the case, District Judge Adam Nakhoda yesterday sentenced Chia to 32 weeks in jail.
Chia had pleaded guilty in October to three counts of insulting a woman’s modesty, and a similar charge was considered.
Judge Nakhoda noted that the former speaker had stocked up with mini online cameras to commit the crimes, went to the effort to dismantle and conceal them, and even experimented with camera settings for optimal positioning.
Chia also organized the illegal videos by date and tagged them, which gave her the opportunity to see them more and had clear potential for further dissemination, the judge said.
However, he also acknowledged that Chia had been diagnosed with voyeuristic and adjustment disorders, had attended 34 counseling sessions since her arrest, and has not committed a crime again.
The court had previously heard that Chia would connect a camera to a portable charger and position the lens so that it poked out of the side of her laptop bag.
He kept at least two spare cameras since, in the course of committing his crimes between July and October 2017, he had broken at least two cameras, Assistant District Attorney Kathy Chu said.
Walking through shopping centers like Ion Orchard, Chia would place the hidden camera under the dresses or skirts of her victims. You would copy the file to your personal electronic devices.
He was arrested on October 23, 2017, after a man suspected he was taking upskirt videos in Plaza Singapura and called the police. A total of 362 clips were recovered from Chia’s tablet and USB stick, which were seized in a raid on her home.
Of these, 314 were taken between July and October 2017, while 21 were undated. The remaining 27 clips could not be played. In October, ITE told The New Paper that Chia had been fired in March 2018.
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