Cleaner who filmed woman's feet in toilet of SATS building jailed 4 weeks
SINGAPORE — A cleaner who worked at the SATS Airfreight Terminal 5 building trespassed into a female toilet to film a woman.
But Lee Beng Chiu, 33, only managed to capture the bottom part of the victim’s pants and feet in three video clips in his Samsung tablet, which was placed outside the cubicle occupied by the victim.
These films were discovered on his tablet a few days after the incident and Lee was arrested.
The Malaysian was jailed for four weeks on Wednesday (8 January) after he pleaded guilty to one count of criminally trespassing into the toilet and insulting the modesty of a woman on 30 August last year.
He entered into the toilet again on 1 September and the charge of trespass was taken into consideration for his sentencing. Another charge of possessing 11 obscene films was also considered.
At the time of the offences, Lee was employed as a cleaner for Sun City Maintenance and was tasked to perform his duties from 7am to 7pm at the areas outside the SATS Airfreight Terminal 5, including walkways and carparks.
On 30 August, about an hour after ending work, Lee was on level four of the building using his tablet by tapping the free wifi. He entered a female toilet on the same floor with the intention of filming women there.
The victim was using a cubicle in the toilet at the time. When Lee realised the cubicle was occupied, he turned on the recording function of his tablet and placed it in front of the cubicle door.
Court documents did not state how the victim came to realise she was being filmed. She complained to her colleagues about the incident and the matter was escalated to investigation officers with SATS.
On 2 September, investigation officers patrolled level four of the building when they saw Lee using his tablet. They conducted a spot check on him and discovered three clips of a woman’s feet taken from outside a toilet cubicle. The videos were shown to the victim, who confirmed that she was being filmed.
Lee was arrested and his device seized.
The prosecution sought four to six weeks’ jail for Lee, who said in mitigation that his parents, including a sick mother, were waiting for him to return home.
The unrepresented man said that he had a mortgage of more than 30 years to pay off and asked for leniency.
For insulting the modesty of a woman, Lee could have been jailed up to one year and fined. For criminal trespass, he could have been jailed up to three months, or fined up to $1,500.
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