Jail for man who took over 178 upskirt pictures
For more than a year, he took upskirt pictures of dozens of victims.
When he was finally caught, 178 upskirt photos of different victims from unknown locations were found on his two phones.
On Monday, after almost three years of investigations, Sim Choon Seng, 52, was jailed for 30 weeks for the upskirt images.
He was also fined $3,000 for another three obscene films found on the phones.
On July 28, 2016, Sim, whose occupation was not revealed in court documents, took an upskirt photo of a woman on an escalator at Jem shopping mall in Jurong East.
When a man saw what he was doing and shouted at him, Sim ran, but was caught by the witness at Westgate Shopping Centre.
When the police arrested him and examined his phones, they found numerous upskirt photos taken from October 2014 to June 2016.
Three obscene videos were also found.
Sim admitted he downloaded the videos from the Internet for his personal viewing.
Deputy public prosecutor Shenna Tjoa asked for a global sentence of 30 weeks' jail due to the high degree of intrusion and a fine of $3,000.
In mitigation, Sim's lawyer Tang Jin Sheng said his client was genuinely remorseful, and has been seeing a psychiatrist.
He added that Sim had only taken photos and not videos of the victims, which he said was distinctive in severity.
He asked for a global sentence of 20 weeks' jail and a $3,000 fine.
During sentencing, district judge Adam Nakhoda said that even as just photos, the pictures had the potential for multiple viewing and dissemination.
"There is a plague of such cases at this time," he said.
"There is not much difference whether it is a photo or video because of the degree of intrusion."
REHABILITATION
He added that there was a lack in evidence of rehabilitation in Sim's case and agreed with the DPP's position that a higher global sentence was required.
Sim was convicted of 20 charges of insulting the modesty of a woman and a charge of possession of obscene films.
Another 158 charges of insulting the modesty of a woman were taken into consideration.
For each charge of insulting the modesty of a woman, he could have been jailed up to a year, or fined, or both.
For possession of obscene films, he could have been jailed up to six months, or fined up to $20,000, or both.
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