A 23-year-old boy was jailed for 20 months on Thursday for filming compromising videos of his girlfriend, repeatedly without her consent while she was sleeping or taking a shower.
The man, who was 19 years old at that time and a student at the Singapore Institute of Management (SIM), pleaded guilty to five charges of voyeurism and an additional charge of disseminating intimate photos. For sentence, the court considered five additional voyeurism offenses.
A gag order protected the identity of both, the victim and the offender. According to reports, all the acts of voyeurism occurred between 2020 and 2022, when they were dating.
Asked Girlfriend to Wear Eye Mask During Intercourse
On February 10, 2021, the man secretly filmed his girlfriend for the first time. He took off her shirt and recorded two films of himself stroking her naked chest with his phone while she was asleep.
Two months later, he videotaped the victim without her knowledge and instructed her to wear an eye mask during intercourse. At one point of time, he even stopped her from removing the eye mask and he went on with the filming.
The man repeatedly recorded his girlfriend's undressing while she was changing or taking a shower in her hostel. He used his phone to record her taking a shower through a space between the ceiling and the top of the toilet door.
He last recorded his girlfriend on July 16, 2021, while she was sleeping on the couch, and he recorded himself caressing her chest. However, when the victim woke up, she spotted the camera on his phone pointing at her direction.
When she questioned him, the man put his phone away and denied that he was photographing her. She accepted his word for it and moved on.
Couple Broke Up in 2022
In 2022, the couple parted ways for reasons unrelated to the offences. However, the man kept messaging her on Instagram between July and August 2023, requesting to show her chest.
Even though the victim had already barred him from all of her email addresses and social media sites, he continued to reach her by making new accounts. The man threatened to share his pictures of her with others when she ignored him.
As the victim was unaware of the private photos her ex-boyfriend had taken, she kept ignoring him. The man acknowledged that he had threatened the victim in an attempt to get her attention.
The offences came to light this January, when the man reached out to the victim's brother on Instagram.
Contacted Victim's Brother Asking for 'Sexy Photos'
The man asked for "sexy photos" of the victim's brother's girlfriend. When the brother said he did not have any, the man did not believe him.
Following this, he emailed her brother two pictures of the victim, one of which featured her face and bare chest. He sent another picture of the victim wearing a bra when the brother disregarded him.
Since Telegram allowed users to transmit and receive disappearing images, the man advised the brother to add him on the social media platform if he wanted to see nude images of his own sister.
The man was unaware that the victim had already been notified about the conversation by her brother, and she had instructed him to look further into the alleged nude photos her ex-boyfriend had.
The man shared two disappearing images with the victim's brother on Telegram which were screenshots of her taking a shower and having sex with him.
That day, the victim reported the incident to the police. More private footage of the victim was found in his cloud storage account, and the man was arrested the next day while performing National Service.
Habitual Voyeur
In a victim impact statement, the woman said that she was deeply traumatized after discovering that she had been filmed during their relationship without her knowledge.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Ariel Tan told CNA, "Her trauma was caused by her fear that her life and career would be destroyed if people discovered her naked photos and videos."
The woman now uses a hidden camera detection light to examine any new room she enters, the prosecution continued, because she is afraid, she will be filmed again if she starts to undress.
Tan said during sentencing arguments that she also sobs every time she thinks back to what her ex-boyfriend did to her. Although the individual was evaluated at the Institute of Mental Health (IMH) and given a voyeuristic disorder diagnosis, this did not play a role in the offenses.
Tan emphasized that the IMH report said that the man's capacity to exercise self-control and comprehend the nature and wrongness of his actions was unaffected by the condition.
She requested 22 to 25 months in prison, calling the guy "a habitual voyeur" and claiming that his acts demonstrated a high level of premeditation and depravity.
The man regularly recorded his girlfriend in settings that made it possible for him to avoid being discovered. According to Tan, his offenses were "carefully calculated acts" rather than "cannot simply be chalked up to a moment of youthful folly."
The man was 22 when he shared the private photos, even though he was 19 at the time of the voyeurism offenses. The prosecutor contended that this demonstrated an increase in his illegal behavior.
Abusing Trust of Woman in a Relationship
Thomas Tham, the defense attorney, emphasized his client's youth at the time of the voyeurism offences and asked the court to take probation into consideration.
"He wanted to have a look at the lady, and they were having a good relationship together in the beginning," stated the attorney. It "caused all these problems" once their relationship "went bad" two years later, he continued.
However, Luke Tan, the Deputy Principal District Judge, pointed out that the voyeurism took place during the relationship, which allowed the defendant to approach the victim and carry out the crimes.
According to the judge, the man recorded intimate films of his fiancée for his own sexual pleasure, abusing the trust that she had placed in him.
Judge Tan noted that it was humiliating for the guy to later spread the revealing photos, especially because he knew he was sending them to the victim's own brother.
"Whatever may be said about his age at the time of commission of the offences, she was even younger," he stated regarding the victim.
The judge took note of the victim's vulnerability due to her youth and faith in her lover, the serious and recurring nature of the offenses, and the substantial suffering she had suffered as detailed in her impact statement.
Judge Tan stated that probation was inappropriate for the offender and that the primary sentencing factor was deterrence rather than rehabilitation.
Voyeurism can result in a fine, caning, or any combination of these penalties, including up to two years in prison. Distributing private photos without permission carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison, along with a fine, caning, or any combination of these penalties. The individual might have received double the punishment because his allegation of disseminating private photos was combined.
