A 19-year-old was sentenced to 20 months in jail for recording compromising videos of his girlfriend without her knowledge as she slept or showered. The man, who is now 23, pleaded guilty to five voyeurism charges and an amalgamated charge of distributing intimate images. During their relationship from 2020 to 2022, these acts of voyeurism took place.
The man, a student at the Singapore Institute of Management (SIM) at the time, initially recorded his girlfriend without her consent on Feb 10, 2021, while she was asleep. He captured videos of himself touching her bare chest.
In another disturbing incident two months later, he filmed the victim without her knowledge during an intimate moment where she was instructed to wear an eye mask. He continued recording even when she tried to remove the eye mask.
The man also filmed his girlfriend in various states of undress while she was showering or changing. One instance involved recording her showering by placing his phone strategically to capture the footage.
Even after their breakup in 2022, the man continued harassing the victim for intimate images from July to August 2023. He persistently contacted her through various platforms despite being blocked, threatening to expose her photos if she did not comply.
The crimes came to light when the man contacted the victim’s brother on Instagram, sending him explicit images of the victim. This led to the victim making a police report. Subsequently, more videos were discovered in the man’s cloud storage account when he was arrested during National Service.
In her victim impact statement, the woman described feeling traumatized and fearful of the potential consequences of her intimate images being exposed. The ordeal led her to adopt safety measures such as using a hidden camera detector light out of fear of being recorded unknowingly.
Despite the man’s defense of being diagnosed with voyeuristic disorder, the court ruled that it did not excuse his behavior. Deputy Principal District Judge Luke Tan emphasized that deterrence, not rehabilitation, was crucial in this case, leading to the man’s sentencing of 20 months in jail.
