Expelled Yale-NUS student admits to filming housemates showering
Student who also had upskirt videos has since been expelled
A 26-year-old former Yale-NUS student admitted yesterday to taking videos of his housemates showering.
The man, who cannot be named to protect the identities of his victims, said he did it to relieve academic stress.
He pleaded guilty to eight charges of insult of modesty, including taking upskirt videos, with 16 similar charges taken into consideration.
The man lived in a hostel on campus and shared a suite with five women, four of whom became his victims.
While they had separate bedrooms, they shared a bathroom.
Last March, a victim, 22, returned to the suite with her boyfriend and took a shower.
The accused, who was revising his work in his room, then filmed her for about four seconds by placing his phone above the bathroom door.
When she heard noises, she looked up and "saw the phone with the back-facing camera pointed towards her", Deputy Public Prosecutor Gabriel Lim told the court.
The victim shouted for her boyfriend and ran out of the toilet in a towel.
The accused ran to the sofa in the living room and deleted the video and other incriminating videos on his phone. He also removed his phone cover to prevent it from being recognised.
The girl's boyfriend did not suspect him as he could not find anything on the phone.
The accused lied that one of their housemates might have entered the suite. He also suggested a guest from another gathering could have entered since the main door was unlocked.
He offered to help the victim look for the perpetrator. But she alerted campus security and wanted to make a police report.
Hearing that, the accused confessed he was the one standing outside the bathroom.
But he lied that it was his first time doing this and had not recorded anything because he failed to activate the recording function on his phone, said DPP Lim. The victim then decided not to make a police report but later changed her mind.
The police arrested the man and seized his electronic devices, including his laptop and hard drive.
They found upskirt videos, which were taken in a Yale-NUS classroom, and shower videos of four of his housemates taken from August 2017 to March last year.
The accused said he watched the videos when he felt overwhelmed with schoolwork.
Professor Joanne Roberts, executive vice-president of academic affairs at Yale-NUS College, said in a statement that the accused was expelled from the school last October for his conduct.
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