SINGAPORE — A 28-year-old software engineer was ordered to serve an 18-month mandatory treatment order on Tuesday (Oct 13), after pleading guilty to stealing multiple pieces of women’s undergarments and clothing.

Goh Ling Yong had a fetishistic disorder and was sexually aroused from using such clothing, including wearing them, according to an Institute of Mental Health (IMH) report.

A mandatory treatment order is a community sentencing option offered to offenders suffering from mental conditions that contributed to the offence. Those found suitable must attend sessions with a court-appointed psychiatrist.

Goh, who graduated from Nanyang Technological University in 2018 with a computer science degree, pleaded guilty last month to three charges of theft and fraudulent possession of property.

When he was nabbed on March 17 this year, the police found 176 pieces of undergarments and clothing in a sling bag, two luggage bags and a duffel bag in his home.

He could not explain why he had them, which were “reasonably suspected of being stolen”, the court heard.

WHAT HE DID

On March 30 last year, Goh had stolen a red dress worth S$50 along the common corridor of a public housing block, located along Bedok South Avenue 2.

He had cycled there to steal women’s clothing, took the dress from the 12th-storey corridor and kept it in his room. The authorities eventually found it when he was arrested.

Several months later, on Dec 7, he cycled to Tampines Street 82 to steal more clothing.

He took several items — two bras, two undergarments and a romper — that a woman had hung along the third-storey common corridor of a block of flats.

He was caught in the act this time and on two other occasions on closed-circuit television camera footage.

The woman had installed the camera outside her flat as she realised her clothing had persistently gone missing over the past few years.

WORE CLOTHES AND MASTURBATED

In mitigation, Goh’s lawyer Sng Kheng Huat said that the IMH had recommended that he receive treatment from their psychologist. Goh also agreed to return for therapy and follow-up appointments.

“He has suffered for his acts and it has taken a very heavy toll on him. His life has been held in limbo during this period (since he was charged) and the stigma will follow him after,” Mr Sng added.

Due to the case, Goh’s employer suspended him.

Goh told an IMH psychiatrist that he has not had any romantic relationships.

He reported being sexually aroused by wearing women’s clothing, including dresses and undergarments, and wore his sister’s clothes out of curiosity when he was aged 12.

He further said that he took the stolen clothes home, wore them, watched pornography and masturbated.

For theft, he could have been jailed for up to three years, fined or both.