SINGAPORE: A student at a junior college trespassed repeatedly into women's toilets at the National University of Singapore's University Town to peep at women.

Zachary Lim Yong Hao, 18, pleaded guilty on Thursday (Feb 27) to one charge of criminal trespass to commit an offence and another of insulting a woman's modesty.



Two other charges will be taken into consideration for sentencing.

The court heard that Lim was a student at an unidentified junior college at the time of the offence last year.

While on a bus to Sentosa in January 2019, he felt the urge to urinate and alighted at UTown at 2 College Ave West to use the toilet.

After relieving himself in the men's toilet, he saw a female student entering the women's toilet, said Deputy Public Prosecutor Colin Ng.



As he found her attractive, he felt the urge to follow her into the toilet, the court heard.

DEVELOPED HABIT OF VISITING UTOWN TO LOOK AT WOMEN

After this, Lim developed a habit of visiting NUS UTown almost every Sunday with the intention of looking at female students.

He would cycle from his Choa Chu Kang home to UTown to walk around campus, looking at women.

On Mar 17, 2019, Lim entered a women's toilet at UTown and waited almost an hour before a 22-year-old woman entered the washroom.

She went into the cubicle next to Lim's and was relieving herself when she looked up to see Lim's face, looking down at her.

The victim immediately left the toilet and returned with a friend about half an hour later.

They noticed that the first cubicle was locked, but there was no response when they knocked on the door.

They left to fetch security officers, but when they returned, Lim had left.

The victim lodged a report days later. Lim later admitted that he had stepped on the toilet bowl with the lid on to peep over the partition.

He then masturbated while fantasising about the victim, and left the toilet before the security officers arrived.

SPOTTED LOITERING OUTSIDE TOILET

On May 5, 2019, a campus security officer monitoring closed-circuit television footage spotted Lim loitering suspiciously outside a women's toilet at UTown.

She told the team leader of the campus security team, who headed down with another security officer.

As they walked there, Lim entered the women's toilet. The two security officers stood outside the toilet and shouted in, asking if anyone was in there.

A female student answered and came out of the toilet when asked to do so. Lim stayed inside one of the locked cubicles and refused to open the door at first.

When he eventually relented, he denied any wrongdoing and insisted that he had entered by mistake.

He later admitted that he had deliberately followed the woman into the toilet as he got an "adrenaline rush" whenever he entered a women's toilet.

The judge called for a probation report and adjourned sentencing to Mar 26.

The penalties for insulting a woman's modesty are a maximum year's jail, a fine, or both. The punishment for criminal trespass is a maximum of three months' jail, a fine of up to S$1,500, or both.