SINGAPORE — When Muhammad Iqbal Mohamed Rafe trespassed into a flat to steal a bra and two sets of panties, he heard someone returning home and fled into the kitchen toilet.

Iqbal then claimed that a woman had allowed him to enter and use the toilet as it was urgent.

The 35-year-old man was jailed nine months on Monday (May 11) after pleading guilty to three charges: House trespass, housebreaking and theft.

A forensic psychiatrist from the Institute of Mental Health (IMH) said in his report that Iqbal has a “fetishistic disorder” and experiences recurrent sexual arousal from using women’s undergarments.

He has no other mental disorder and was not of unsound mind at the time of his offences, the psychiatrist added.

The court heard that Iqbal first struck on April 6, 2018, when he stole an electric scooter worth S$741 that was not locked or secured near the entrance of a flat. He stole another e-scooter later that month.

From Jan 6, 2018 to Feb 19 last year, he stole a total of 11 bras and two sets of panties on three separate occasions. Some of them were later found in his own home.

On the morning of Sept 18 last year, he left home for work on his e-scooter and rode past a block of flats in Yishun.

He intentionally took a detour to check on a maisonette unit, having seen some undergarments hanging in there the previous day. He had thought of stealing them then but resisted doing so.

This time, he noticed that the padlock on the door was not properly secured, so he opened the gate and door and looked around the flat.

He found 10 bras hanging on a clothes rack in a room. He then immediately left when he saw the owner of the underwear — a 23-year-old woman — sleeping there.

He went back down to the first floor of the unit and took a haversack, containing a wallet and cash, and put the bras in there. As he left, he accidentally touched the padlock and decided to take it with him out of fear of leaving his fingerprints behind.

He went back home on his e-scooter and wanted to use the bras for his masturbation, but realised that he was already late for work.

About four months later, on Jan 29 this year, Iqbal entered another flat after seeing a bra hanging on a clothes rack. He felt sexually aroused by this and wanted to touch it.

After unfastening the unlocked metal gate, he took the undergarments and caressed them, but panicked upon hearing someone returning.

When the man who had returned shouted, Iqbal locked himself in the kitchen toilet, put the underwear on a basin and flushed the toilet. He then emerged and lied that he had been allowed to enter.

However, the other man verified with the two women in the flat — they were sleeping at the time — that this was not the case.

He then checked Iqbal’s National Registration Identity Card and allowed Iqbal to leave. But after that, one of the women discovered that her undergarments had been moved.

Iqbal was arrested later that day.

In court, he made his own submissions in mitigation, saying that he was “very sorry” for what he had done and requested leniency and a lighter sentence.

He said that while he was in remand at IMH, he told a doctor that he would seek help. Iqbal added that he would seek help from his family.