Secondary school student admits to placing pinhole camera in toilet, recording female schoolmate

SINGAPORE - Hoping to film his schoolmates using the toilet, he entered one of the female toilets in his secondary school and placed a black pen fixed with a pinhole camera on the door of a cubicle.

With the camera angled towards the toilet seat, he recorded a female student using the toilet on Aug 19 day last year.

The male student, now 17, pleaded guilty in court on Wednesday (Nov 17) to voyeurism. He was also convicted for an earlier upskirt offence.

Details about the teenager and his school cannot be disclosed as young people under 18 are protected under the Children and Young Persons Act.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Ng Jean Ting told the court that when the female student was about the leave the cubicle, she noticed the pen and found it unusual.

DPP Ng said: "She took a closer look at the pen and discovered that there was an SD card embedded on the pen, and that there was a pinhole camera on the top of the pen."

She removed the pen and handed it to one of the vice-principals and the school's discipline master made a police report two days after the incident.

DPP Ng said that the offender had since 2019 filmed several up-skirt videos of female strangers at MRT stations without their consent.

"He usually committed the act using his handphone, and while going up the escalator when victims wearing skirts are standing in front of him," she said.

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On Aug 13 last year, at an MRT station, he recorded a video of a woman on the escalator in front of him.

He later sent the video and two screenshots from the video to his classmate.

The teenager's lawyer Audrey Koo said it was his first brush with the law and that he had since taken positive steps including attending counselling sessions.

District Judge Kessler Soh called for a report to assess the offender's suitability for probation before his sentencing on Dec 15.

For his voyeurism offences, he can be jailed for up to two years, fined or both.

For distribution of voyeuristic image, he can be jailed for up to five years, fined or both.

This article was first published in The Straits Times. Permission required for reproduction.