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Navy regular who filmed 117 voyeuristic videos, mostly of JC girls, jailed 6 months

Of the 117 voyeuristic videos Daren Ng Chee Kai took, 101 involved victims in school uniforms. (PHOTO: Getty)
Of the 117 voyeuristic videos Daren Ng Chee Kai took, 101 involved victims in school uniforms. (PHOTO: Getty)

SINGAPORE — A navy regular who recorded 117 voyeuristic videos over more than a year, mostly of girls in junior college (JC) uniforms at MRT stations and on public transport, was on Friday (29 January) jailed for six months.

Daren Ng Chee Kai, 24, had pleaded guilty last month to one charge of insulting a woman’s modesty. Two similar counts were considered in sentencing.

He was caught after a victim made a police report on 25 October 2019, stating that she had been followed by an unknown man at Buona Vista MRT Station about a week earlier.

Ng was traced and admitted to taking a video of the victim, which he had deleted.

A forensic examination of his phone and laptop uncovered numerous voyeuristic videos. These films had been recorded at various MRT Stations such as Serangoon, Botanic Gardens and Kovan; at overhead bridges near bus-stops; and on various bus rides.

In all, Ng took 117 such videos between May 2018 and October 2019. Of these, 101 involved girls in JC uniforms.

“Most of his victims were girls who were attending the various junior colleges in Singapore and the accused had targeted the victims at locations near their junior colleges,” said Deputy Public Prosecutor R. Arvindren.

“The accused would look out for women who wore skirts in the vicinity of the locations...although his offences were not limited to these places,” said the prosecutor.

On at least one occasion, Ng took a downblouse video of a JC student on board an MRT train.

Sometimes, he would tail his victims for a while on escalators or overhead bridges, using his phone to record multiple voyeuristic videos of the same victims. Some of the videos captured the victims’ faces, while many captured their school uniforms.

“Many of the victims belonged to the various junior colleges in Singapore and the accused clearly knew that some of them were likely below the age of 18 as he admitted that his preference was junior college girls in school uniform,” said DPP Arvindren.

The prosecutor asked for at least eight months’ jail.

In mitigation, Ng’s lawyer Ashwin Ganapathy said his client has been suspended from the Navy due to his criminal charges and has been diagnosed with voyeuristic disorder. Ng came across upskirt videos on pornography websites sometime in 2018 or 2019 and was drawn to them.

The lawyer asked for 14 to 16 weeks’ jail, saying there was no significant planning and orchestration involved in Ng’s offences. Ng is also undergoing therapy for his mental disorder and has avoided taking public transport, he added.

In sentencing, District Judge Adam Nakhoda noted that Ng had targetted JC students in uniforms near their schools. The culprit also cooperated with the authorities and admitted to his crimes early.

Ng will begin his jail term after the Chinese New Year.

He could have been jailed for up to a year and also fined.

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