SINGAPORE — While at a cafe, a man took upskirt videos of a woman paying at a cashier.

Tham Kai Sheng, 31, was arrested and charged for the offence, but that did not deter the Malaysian. While on bail, he went on to take upskirt videos of a female medical assistant as she administered an eye test to him.

Tham was given nine weeks’ jail on Monday (30 March) after he pleaded guilty to four out of nine counts of insulting the modesty of a woman, with the rest taken into consideration for sentencing.

On 7 August 2018, Tham was doing some work at a cafe where he sat near the cashier. The victim, a 32-year-old woman, was seated at a separate table with a client. When the woman walked to the cashier to order drinks, Tham placed his phone underneath her dress.

Before he left, he placed his phone under her dress again. His actions were captured by the cafe’s CCTV camera. A staff of the cafe witnessed the action and asked a colleague to check the cafe’s CCTV camera. She made a police report about an hour later.

While under investigation, Tham admitted to taking a total of seven upskirt videos of as many women. Five involved his friends and colleagues, while the remaining two were strangers. He had saved the videos in his cloud storage application on his computer and taken screenshots of the videos. He would delete the videos afterwards.

While released on bail, Tham reoffended last year.

On 12 July last year, at about 9.45am, Tham went to an eye specialist at a hospital for a medical appointment. A 34-year-old female assistant attended to him and conducted a visual field test on him as he sat on a chair. The woman realised as she stood beside Tham that he had his mobile phone in camera mode and became suspicious.

After Tham returned from a consultation with a doctor, the same woman administered a corneal thickness test on him and put eye drops in both his eyes. As she was doing so, Tham tried to move his phone towards her. The woman then stepped away and asked her colleague, an administrative assistant, to watch what was happening in the room.

The woman continued with the test while her colleague watched. As the woman retrieved a medical instrument, her colleague saw Tham placing his phone under the woman’s skirt. The colleague confronted Tham, who quickly deleted the incriminating photos.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Bjorn Tan sought nine weeks’ jail for Tham, pointing out that Tham had reoffended even after he was charged.

Tham’s lawyer Sara Ng told the court that her client had sought psychiatric treatment and has been attending monthly sessions.

“(My client is) simply asking for leniency because of the fact that client has done well so far. At the time of offences he was pursing a Master’s Degree in NUS (National University of Singapore) and (it was the) period of stress that pushed him to commit these offences,” said Ng, who called for no more than six weeks’ jail.

A report from the Institute of Mental Health noted that Tham displayed voyeuristic interest that was a form of sexual deviancy but it did not impair his self control, according to DPP Tan. Tham had reoffended two months after the report was produced in May last year.

For insulting the modesty of a woman, Tham could have been jailed up to a year, fined, or both, on each count.

Stay in the know on-the-go: Join Yahoo Singapore's Telegram channel at http://t.me/YahooSingapore

More Singapore stories



JC student who regularly visited NUS campus to look at women given probation for peeping offence



PM Lee makes police report over fake e-mail on COVID-19 that uses his name



Man who punched elderly e-scooter rider, blinded victim in one eye, jailed