A former Singapore based Defence Science and Technology Agency's (DSTA) IT engineer with the was sentenced to 22 weeks of jail term on Wednesday after pleading guilty to seven counts of insulting a woman's modesty. The court also considered 52 similar charges during sentencing.
The convict, Philson Nah Zheng Xiang was caught taking upskirt video on an escalator at an MRT station. He was awaiting enrolment into a master's programme at Nanyang Technological University (NTU) at the time of the incident. After his arrest, further investigation revealed that Philson was found to have targeted more than 50 women.
During the court hearing, the judge came to know that the 33-year-old woman, who was riding an escalator at King Albert Park MRT station, was targeted by the culprit, who was on a step behind her and placed his phone under her dress to film her inner section. But, when the woman found that something was wrong, she confronted him in public.
The Deputy Public Prosecutor Genevieve Pang said that the Philson admitted "to taking an upskirt video of her but told her that he would delete it. He also begged her not to call the police. When the victim asked to see the video, the accused refused to show it to her. The victim tried to grab the accused's mobile phone but the accused resisted her attempts to take it."
The DPP also told the court that the victim of the King Albert Park MRT station incident shouted for help and attracted the attention of a 22-year-old passer-by, who tried to get hold of the mobile phone but failed.
However, the court also heard that the accused deleted the upskirt videos but could not get away when the man restrained Philson. The MRT staff, who were present on the spot alerted the police about the incident. When the police arrested the man and took his phone, they found more upskirt videos of other women.
Lawyers Gloria James-Civetta and Beverly Lim, who presented the accused on the court, added in the mitigation plea that their client had completed his Master of Science in Information Systems programme at NTU in May last year.
They also stated that Philson was "deeply remorseful" and "regrets having succumbed to... moments of temptation".
It should be noted that now in Singapore the benchmark sentence for upskirt videos is a minimum jail term of two weeks.
