SINGAPORE — A 26-year-old National University of Singapore (NUS) student was charged in court on Monday (May 13) for allegedly filming a female student showering in their hostel.

Joel Rasis Ismail is accused of trespassing in a female bathroom at the Kuok Foundation House — a building in NUS’ Raffles Hall — on Saturday around 6.30am, as well as insulting his 23-year-old victim’s modesty.

The police said they were alerted to the incident at about 8am, and arrested him later that day through follow-up investigations and with the help of closed-circuit television footage.

Investigations revealed that Joel is also a resident of Raffles Hall.

He is believed to be involved in other similar voyeurism cases, and allegedly tried to avoid detection on Saturday by changing his attire immediately after his alleged offences.

His laptops, mobile phones and other storage devices were seized for further investigation.

His arrest comes on the heels of a nationwide conversation about voyeurism on university campuses, after NUS undergraduate Monica Baey took to Instagram last month to publicise a peeping tom incident involving her, calling for “real change” in how the university and authorities deal with acts that violate women.

Ms Baey's posts — and the larger issue of Singapore universities' handling of sexual misconduct cases — dominated headlines and received an airing in Parliament.

At the same time, similar cases continued to surface, with two cases reported at Nanyang Technological University within just a week of Ms Baey’s posts.

About a week ago, NUS announced a slew of measures to boost security on its campus.  This includes covering gaps in shower cubicles, increasing the number of security guards at hostels and installing new locks at the entrances of restrooms in hostels.

Joel will return to court on May 27, and was ordered to be remanded for two weeks in the Institute of Mental Health for psychiatric evaluation.

If convicted of insulting the modesty of a woman, he could be jailed up to a year and fined. If convicted of criminal trespass, he could be jailed up to three months and fined up to S$1,500.