NUS student jailed and fined for filming women showering on campus



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As an intern in 2016, she filmed videos under the skirts of a colleague at work and two other women near the Tanjong Pagar MRT station.

Joel Rasis Ismail was not caught and the architecture student became more brash while living on campus.

Between March and May last year, the National University of Singapore (NUS) student filmed four students showering in toilets on women-only floors in a residential hall.

Yesterday, he was jailed for 12 weeks and fined $ 1,500.

Joel, now 27, previously pleaded guilty to three counts of insulting a woman’s modesty and one count of trespassing.

District Judge Adam Nakhoda considered seven other similar charges during sentencing.

The judge agreed with Assistant District Attorney Andre Ong that the rehabilitative factors in the case were insufficient to overcome the need for general and specific deterrence.

He noted that when Joel filmed the students showering, he was aware of the public unrest that arose from a similar Peeping Tom incident that made headlines at the time.

Her fellow NUS student Monica Baey had shared her frustration over her experience of being filmed while showering in another residential room in 2018, sparking uproar and debate.

Rejecting defense attorney Malcolm Tan’s arguments in favor of community-based sentencing, Judge Nakhoda said that Joel’s actions were intentional and deliberate and that he did not suffer from any psychiatric disorder.

Tan said that his client had committed the 2019 crimes in a mistaken attempt to increase his libido, but the judge said this reason was unacceptable.

Judge Nakhoda also noted the high degree of intrusion, which was compounded by the fact that victims showered in women’s-only bathrooms on women’s-only floors, where they had the right to feel safe.

He also disagreed with Tan’s point that Joel could have wasted a potentially bright future, saying this was irrelevant.

However, the judge accepted that Joel was sorry, had the support of his family and had a low risk of recidivism.

Joel, a fifth-year student, lived at the Kuok Foundation House inside NUS’s Raffles Hall.

In March of last year, she visited a friend who stayed in a women’s-only floor down the hall.

She went to the bathroom to relieve herself, heard someone shower, and decided to film her.

He did this with two other students before he was caught red-handed after filming a fourth student in May.

To evade detection, Joel had changed his clothes. He also initially denied wrongdoing, but later admitted his crimes.

A spokesperson for NUS said Joel is still suspended. A previously convened disciplinary board imposed a series of sanctions on him, including a three-semester suspension, mandatory counseling sessions and rehabilitation. The penalties will be part of your educational record and you are not allowed on campus.

Additionally, NUS said it would investigate whether Joel had committed other offenses and that it may convene another disciplinary board if new information emerges.



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