'Old habits die hard' seems the gospel truth for crimes after an accused carried out criminal activities as soon as he was released from jail. The 23-year old accused has been convicted for taking upskirt photographs of two women, just two months after he was released from prison for snatch theft.
Muhammad Hairuldin Osman has been jailed for three weeks on Tuesday after he admitted to one charge of intruding into the privacy of a 20-year-old woman. He used his mobile phone to take an upskirt photograph of the woman at a bus stop at Jalan Damai on March 6, 2017.
It was revealed during the sentencing that two Uber passengers saw Hairuldin, holding out his mobile phone underneath the woman's dress. They alerted the victim and confronted him. However, he denied taking any picture until the victim found a photograph of her underwear on his phone.
During sentencing, the court took into consideration a second charge of taking a similar kind of video of a 24-year-old woman in an HDB lift on March 3.
Hairuldin was sentenced to jail in 2016 after he was convicted of snatch theft and was released on Jan 10, 2017, on a remission order.
During the hearing, his lawyer Ariel Lim urged the court to consider the fact that Hairuldin was below the average range of intellectual functioning and reduce the term to two weeks instead of four weeks.
This incident comes amidst furore about women's safety in Singapore. Recently, parents have expressed concern about the safety of their wards after two incidents of strangers approaching young female students within a week hit headlines.
