Man filming upskirt video unwittingly stood in front of off-duty police officer
SINGAPORE — A man who filmed up the skirt of two female teenagers on an ascending escalator had no idea that he was standing right in front of an off-duty police officer while doing it.
The police officer, who found it odd that Lee Soon Cheng, 51, had abruptly squeezed onto the step between him and the victims, watched Lee closely and caught him in the acts red-handed.
Lee was jailed for 34 weeks on Wednesday (13 October), after pleading guilty to one count of insulting the modesty of women in at least 302 occasions between 1 January and 21 April 2017.
The incident involving the two female teenagers on 21 April 2017 forms the subject of another charge which accuses Lee of possessing six obscene films. This charge was taken into consideration for his sentencing.
Positioned himself deliberately
Lee, a Singaporean, was at Little India MRT Station on 21 April 2017 when he was caught. At about 10pm, he took an ascending escalator and deliberately squeezed between a man and a group of three female teenagers.
Lee had seen that one of the teenagers, standing on the left of the escalator, was wearing a short skirt. He stretched his left hand towards the teenager’s thigh and placed his phone at the bottom of her skirt to illicitly record her.
He then walked up the escalator and angled his camera towards the teenager’s friend, who was also wearing a short skirt and standing on the right of the escalator. He similarly recorded up her skirt.
When he reached the end of the escalator, Lee reviewed the video he had taken.
Meanwhile, the man whom Lee had stood in front, an off-duty police officer, found it weird that Lee had inserted himself behind the teenagers. The officer was unidentified in court documents. He continued observing Lee and witnessed the upskirt recordings.
He confronted Lee, who denied doing anything wrong. The man then told Lee that he was a police officer and asked to see Lee’s phone. Though initially reluctant, Lee handed over his phone. The man found the upskirt video on Lee’s phone and sought assistance from SMRT staff to detain Lee.
The man also asked the two female teenagers to verify if they were the subjects in the upskirt video. The two teenagers confirmed that they were.
Phone contained other upskirt images
An SMRT staff called the police and officers later arrested Lee. After Lee’s phone was seized and sent for forensic analysis, it was found to contain 380 upskirt images.
On at least 302 occasions between 1 January and 21 April 2017, Lee would take upskirt recordings of women, after looking out for women who wore skirts and dresses.
The prosecution had called for at least 36 weeks’ jail for Lee.
For insulting the modesty of any woman, Lee could have been jailed for up to a year, or fined, or both.
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