Jailed for swallowing evidence of upskirt video clip
PUBLISHED ONDecember 11, 2014 12:50 AMByElena Chong
A Malaysian electrician was jailed for three months yesterday for swallowing a memory card after he had used his mobile phone to capture a video recording of the underneath of a woman's skirt.
Koo Kiat Boon, 25, admitted to insulting the modesty of the 28-year-old woman and destroying an electronic record on board SBS Transit service 170 along Woodlands Road on Sept 3.
Investigations showed that, while he was taking the bus home at about 7pm, he saw the victim, a Malaysian, standing in front of him and found her pretty.
As the bus was very crowded, he decided to take the opportunity to record an upskirt video of the victim, said Deputy Public Prosecutor Kelly Ho.
He took out his Sony Xperia mobile phone, switched it on in recording mode, bent down a little and stretched his left hand underneath the victim's skirt.
Another commuter, a 25-year-old Malaysian, saw what he was doing and grabbed his hand.
Koo ignored him and attempted to delete the video.
When the witness tried to get Koo's mobile phone, the latter swung his arms around to prevent the witness from taking the phone.
The device dropped.
Koo then squatted on the floor and smashed the phone repeatedly against the floor, hoping to damage it to conceal the evidence of his crime.
The phone was bent in half with the back exposed, and Koo removed the memory card and placed it inside his mouth.
At the Woodlands Checkpoint, the bus driver honked his horn at police officers on duty for help. Koo was arrested.
His lawyer, Richard Lim, said he had committed the offences impulsively in a moment of folly.
Mr Lim said Koo, who has a two-year-old son, had learnt a bitter lesson and paid a heavy price for it.
District Judge Hamidah Ibrahim said destroying evidence to avoid prosecution was far more serious than the insulting-modesty offence.
Koo could have been jailed for up to one year and fined for insulting modesty, and up to two years and fined for destroying an electronic record.
elena@sph.com.sg
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