Teacher pleads guilty to filming students, colleagues in male toilets
SINGAPORE — A male teacher who illicitly filmed students and colleagues in male toilets was caught after a man he filmed in his condominium clubhouse toilet turned out to be a policeman.
When the 49-year-old was caught, he was found to have video recordings of at least three teachers and two students from the secondary school where he had taught, in addition to scores of videos from his condo's clubhouse toilet.
The man pleaded guilty on Friday (25 February) to four charges, including committing a public nuisance offence by filming the males, and making obscene films. Another six charges of a similar nature will be considered for his sentencing.
A gag order has been imposed on the identities of all the victims and the accused man. The man will be sentenced on 23 March.
Filmed police officer by pretending to look for access card
The police officer, who is an investigation officer, was at the condo's clubhouse toilet after a swim on 15 April 2018, when he encountered the accused man.
After showering, the officer dried himself with a tower at a bench while naked. The accused man pretended to look for his condo access card, but placed his mobile phone in front of himself instead, with its camera lens angled at the officer to record a video.
He then stood on a bench to ostensibly look for his access card on the ledge of the shower stalls, but was actually filming the victim. The 60-second video captured the victim’s face and bare genitals.
After the man left, the police officer followed him as he felt the man had been behaving suspiciously. He went to his family members' unit in the condo to collect his police warrant card and lanyard, before commencing a search for the accused.
He found the accused at night and identified himself at a police officer, and told him of his suspicions. The victim eventually handed over his phone and both headed towards the guardhouse. The victim pleaded with the accused to give him another chance but the victim briefed security officers of what happened and asked the accused to unlock his phone.
The first thing on the screen was the video recording of the victim. The victim then saw other similar videos and lodged a police report.
117 videos filmed without subjects' consent
Earlier on the same day, the man had also filmed his colleague, a 51-year-old male teacher in his school, urinating in the male toilet.
Towards the end of 2017, the man had also filmed his male students. One was a 16-year-old who had been urinating in the school toilet when the man filmed him, capturing his face and genitals. He captured another student changing out of a pair of shorts.
After the man’s devices were seized, the authorities found at least 98 obscene films made between 16 February and 29 December 2017, as well as 30 obscene films taken between 16 February and 12 April 2018.
Out of these 128 films, 117 were recorded without the male victims' consent and with the use of a similar modus operandi, with the man pretending to look for an item. In some cases, he barged into the shower cubicles of victims despite their doors being closed, under the pretext of looking for an item. In other instances, the man would pretend to speak on his mobile phone while actually recording the unsuspecting victims.
The remaining 11 films appeared to have been recorded with the subjects’ consent.
During an interview with a government psychiatrist, the man claimed that he would watch the films again or transfer them onto his laptop to view them on a bigger screen. He claimed he would feel guilty and delete the films for fear of being caught.
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