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SINGAPORE – A doctor who hid a camera in his shoe and used it to record more than 3,000 upskirt videos was sentenced on Friday (December 11) to three years in jail.
Chu Ben Wee, 28, is one of the most prolific serial voyeurs ever to appear in court, said Assistant District Attorney Sruthi Boppana.
The prosecutor added that Chu “took full advantage of available technologies to conceal his criminal behavior” and recorded videos in various places, including hospitals and universities.
They cannot be named due to a gag order to protect the identities of the victims.
The Singaporean was initially arrested on January 18, 2018, but relapsed while under police investigations in April of last year.
After receiving bail that same month, he returned to his old ways in July of last year.
On Friday, Chu, who appeared in court via video link, pleaded guilty to four counts of insulting the modesty of women.
During the sentencing, thirteen other charges were considered, mainly for similar crimes.
The court heard that Chu started recording such videos when he was a student at a popular university in 2009.
DPP Sruthi said: “To record the videos under the skirts, the defendant bought a pair of black sports shoes and made a hole about 1.5 cm wide near the front of his right shoe.
“He would then hide a GoPro camera in said shoe and align the camera lens with the hole before wearing the shoe, taking care to position his foot so as not to obstruct the video recording process.”
After recording the videos, Chu transferred them to a hard drive,
giving the videos titles related to factors such as the victims’ race, estimated age and type of underwear.
Whenever he felt the need, he also watched the clips for his own sexual gratification.
Later, he targeted women in two hospitals in 2017 and 2018, but these crimes went undetected.
Chu was finally caught when he targeted a woman in a store at the Square 2 shopping center on Novena around 7 pm on January 18, 2018. He was standing near her when he felt something touch his ankle.
The woman saw Chu’s hidden camera as she squatted down and pretended to look at items on a shelf. She confronted him and Chu was later arrested. When police searched his home the next day, they found hard drives containing nearly 3,000 upskirt videos.
Chu was released and, while under police investigation, attacked another woman in the Plaza Singapura shopping center on April 27 last year. She alerted the police and Chu was arrested shortly after.
Three months later, while on bail, he bought a T-shirt and pants that are often worn by male students from another university. He went there on July 31 last year and put on his clothes so he could mingle with the students.
Chu then toured the school and recorded upskirt videos. A student noticed that he was behaving suspiciously and Chu was arrested once more.
On Friday, DPP Sruthi said Chu was diagnosed with major depressive and paraphilic disorders. Paraphilia refers to sexual interest in atypical objects or situations.
However, there was no link contributing to their mental illnesses and crimes, DPP Sruthi added.
He urged Deputy Chief District Judge Seah Chi-Ling to sentence Chu to at least three years and one month in jail, noting that his crimes were premeditated.
She added: “This systematic and willful violation of women’s privacy in public places … inevitably causes considerable public concern and must be met with dignified punishment.”
Defense attorney Luke Lee, however, asked for a shorter jail term and said his client could benefit from treatment.
As of Friday afternoon, Chu’s name is still on the list of registered healthcare professionals in Singapore.
For each count of insulting a woman’s modesty, an offender can be jailed for up to one year and fined.
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