Crowds did not deter him from taking upskirt shots

Orchard Road is often extremely busy on Saturday afternoons.

But the weekend crowds did not deter former engineer Teh Thian Seng, 51, from tailing unsuspecting women before using his handphone to capture upskirt images of them without their knowledge.

The Malaysian, who is a Singapore permanent resident, committed the offence eight times between 1pm and 3.15pm on Aug 25, 2012.

He was jailed yesterday for three weeks and fined $8,500 after pleading guilty to two counts of insulting a woman's modesty and one count of having obscene films.

Six other charges of insulting a woman's modesty were taken into consideration during sentencing.

He started his spree at City Hall MRT station when he saw a woman in a short, black skirt walking towards an escalator leading to an exit.

He quickly crept behind her and positioned his phone - with the video recording function switched on - underneath her skirt to capture images of her thighs and underwear.

Follow

He continued to follow her after she got off the escalator and stepped out of the MRT station. He then captured a shot of her facial features.

The victim was so engrossed with her own mobile phone that she was not aware that she was being filmed.

Teh made his way to Orchard Road to target more unsuspecting women.

He spotted one of them in the underground passageway between Ngee Ann City Shopping Centre and Wisma Atria about two hours later and went up behind her.

But he was caught red-handed by Mr John Shen, 32.

Police officers seized Teh's computer and thumb drive at his Hougang flat around 6.15pm that day. They contained 17 obscene films.

In his mitigation, Teh's lawyer, Mr Louis Joseph from Regent Law, told District Judge Lim Keng Yeow that his client was suffering from depression when he committed the offence.

Pleading for either a fine or a day's jail and a fine, he added that Institute of Mental Health psychiatrist Leong Jern-yi felt that Teh was also suffering from paraphilia.

Sufferers tend to obtain sexual gratification through abnormal methods.

Quoting Dr Leong, Mr Joseph said: "The psychiatric conditions of paraphilia as well as clinical depression were contributing factors for him committing the offences."

However, Deputy Public Prosecutor Jeremy Lua pressed for a jail sentence. He stressed that paraphilia is not an impulse control disorder.

Sexual deviance

DPP Lua said: "His disorder relates to his preference, and the disorder of sexual paraphilia is largely a disorder of sexual preference... a form of sexual deviance. He can continue to seek help and treatment from the prison's medical services."

For each count of insulting a woman's modesty, he could have been jailed up to a year and fined.

And for having the obscene films, he could have been jailed up to six months and fined.

ashaffiq@sph.com.sg

This article was first published on July 26, 2014.
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