• Desmond Teh Yu Kiat took upskirt videos on NUS’ campus, including in the school canteen, bookshop, sports hall, bus stop, café, and on the shuttle bus.
• Between 2015 and 2017, he insulted the modesty of more than 100 unidentified women
• He was aware of the consequences of getting caught but persisted as he “wasn’t caught and got good at it”, the DPP said.
• Pleading for leniency, his lawyer said Teh was relieved that he was caught, adding that he has “a lot of potential’’

SINGAPORE — A former National University of Singapore (NUS) student who pleaded guilty to insulting the modesty of 104 women by taking upskirt videos on campus among other places, as well as filming his victims in changing rooms, was jailed for 28 weeks on Tuesday (Aug 11).

The court heard Desmond Teh Yu Kiat, now aged 27, was a third-year year chemistry undergraduate when he was caught in 2017 after taking the videos in locations including the school canteen, bookshop, sports hall, bus stop, café, and on the shuttle bus.

Teh also admitted possessing close to 600 obscene films.

He made the films whenever he “felt tempted” by an attractive woman aged about 20 to 25 who was dressed well, the court heard. He took two of the videos of the unidentified victims in 2015, 27 of them in 2016, and 75 of them in the first three or so months of 2017, his charge sheets stated.

The court also heard that not only was he engaged in taking the intrusive photographs or videos, he also shared his collection of obscene material with others in a community of anonymous Tumblr users.

Teh’s obsession only came to light on March 24, 2017, when he was caught red-handed for taking an upskirt video of his classmate in NUS as she was using a staircase leading to the canteen.

Teh had trailed behind the victim, who could not be named due to a gag order, after most of their classmates had left their class earlier.

But as he bent his back slightly in order to position his mobile phone so that the camera on the front of the phone faced up, under the victim’s skirt, a witness, then-mechanical engineering student Nguyen Dang Khoa, 27, caught him in the act and shouted: “Stop it because I can report you to the police.”

The victim lodged a police report afterwards, and Teh’s phone and laptop were seized, leading to the discovery of the other offences.

ACCUSED ‘GOT GOOD AT IT’

Deputy Public Prosecutor Zhou Yang sought a total sentence of at least 30 weeks in jail for Teh, pointing out that he was aware of the consequences of getting caught but kept offending as he “wasn’t caught and got good at it”.

By the time he was apprehended, he had derived methods to take upskirt or changing room videos, he added. For example, he would take upskirt videos at staircases, escalators or any elevated platforms by either squatting or walking close behind his victims.

Besides campus, his other places of offending included MRT stations, a McDonald’s outlet, a Cold Storage outlet and a 7-11 outlet, the DPP said.

DPP Zhou also said that although Teh was diagnosed with paraphilic disorder, a disorder of sexual preference where sexual pleasure or gratification is derived from non-sexual objects or practices, it is clear that the related voyeuristic tendencies cannot be seen as a mitigation factor.

Voyeurism is merely a “clinical description” and does not amount to an impulse control disorder, he said.

He further noted that Teh had told a psychiatrist that his earlier motivation was sexual, before it became a channel to de-stress.

Minimal mitigating weight should be accorded to Teh’s attempts to seek help as his visits to the counsellor had become increasingly infrequent in the lead up to Tuesday’s hearing, the DPP added.

DEFENCE LAWYER SAYS TEH HAS ‘A LOT OF POTENTIAL’

Defence lawyer Cheryl Sim of Regent Law, however, argued that Teh is a “bright individual with a good head on his shoulders” and sought leniency.

“He had always exhibited a positive attitude towards self-improvement, his teachers commenting that he was always showing a strong desire to improve and excel,” she said.

To show Teh’s “personal growth” and motivation to “address the root causes of the issue”, Ms Sim added that he had in fact expressed a sense of relief that he was caught for the offences.

She added that Teh – who was employed as a sales engineer in a chemical company until he resigned this month ahead of the court hearing – has a “very promising future”, citing that the National Service Excellence Award for his outstanding performance that he had earned in the army.

Teh appealed for the judge to see that his incarceration would be “tough” for the family as his sister was incarcerated as well.

Teh’s parents divorced when he was five years old and he does not have a relationship with his parents, having lost contact with his mother while his father rarely visits him despite living nearby. He was raised by his grandparents and has been residing with his grandmother and aunt whom he supports financially, Ms Sim said.

GRADUATED IN 2019, THE YEAR NUS DISCIPLINARY FRAMEWORK WAS ENHANCED

NUS issued a statement following the sentencing on Tuesday, stating that it takes a strong stand against sexual misconduct and that an internal board of discipline inquiry heard the matter in May 2017.

A range of disciplinary sanctions had been imposed on Teh, including suspension of his candidature for two semesters, mandatory counselling and community work.

These sanctions form part of Teh’s formal educational record with NUS, it said. He graduated in 2019.

The university had enhanced the disciplinary framework for sexual misconduct offences in June 2019, so students who have breached NUS Statutes and Regulations face “severe sanctions”, including suspension and expulsion, the statement said.

The framework was reviewed a few months after Ms Monica Baey, an undergraduate who was filmed in the shower at Eusoff Hall in November 2018, posted a series of Instagram stories expressing unhappiness over how the university had dealt with the case.