News of Peeping Toms taking up-skirt shots are not uncommon in this day and age. In Malaysia, offenders who plead guilty can be sentenced to a maximum of two months in jail. Just last year in October, a 27-year-old man was jailed for two months for peeping under a woman’s skirt at a shopping mall in Kepong, Kuala Lumpur.

Denise Chan and a case of harassment

Denise Chan is a 23-year-old emcee (you may know her as the former Hitz FM announcer with rainbow-coloured hair), and she was at Paradigm Mall with her boyfriend yesterday. It seemed like any other day — until something fishy happened. According to Denise’s Facebook post, she noticed a man standing close behind her when she was on the escalator with her boyfriend.

A man had put his mobile phone on his left knee, pointing it upwards behind Denise’s skirt. She was suspicious, but merely continued to watch the man as he got off the escalator because she had no proof. Later, she saw the man pick up his mobile phone, bringing it straight to his ear and pretending that he was in the midst of a phone call.

The man quickly walked into a store located in front of the escalator. Denise alerted her boyfriend, and they followed him. They found him still pretending to “talk” on the phone. When the man caught Denise staring at him, he quickly turned around and tried to exit the store. Denise managed to remain quite calm in this situation, though, and use her mobile phone to take pictures of him.

Boiling with anger, Denise demanded that the man delete the pictures he took of her, and show his mobile phone as proof. A quick glance through the man’s photo album revealed that he did take a video of her, and what was worse was that he’d also taken many similar videos of other women, believed to be of their underwear.

According to Denise, she has video evidence of this man. They consist of recordings of the confrontation as well as a picture of his identification card. However, he kept apologising and begged Denise not to post his picture on social media. “But what was I to do right now?” said Denise.

The confrontation went like this:

Denise: “I feel horrible that you’ve done this to me. How could you?”

Pervert: “I’m sorry, I only did this for fun.”

Denise: “Well, is this fun right now?”

Pervert: “No. I’m sorry.”

The incident ended with Denise’s boyfriend yelling at him to leave the place.

Responses from friends on social media

Some of Denise’s friends on Facebook have voiced out their opinions towards this incident.

Some of them asked her to lodge a police report against the man.

However, according to her reply to her Facebook friends, she decided not to post up his picture or video.

Others blamed her skirt length.

One guy, in particular, said that if women wore longer skirts, it would deter men from trying to commit such crimes.

“Read a post on this, where the man was actually charged. Court has ruled it out because there was no law to punish offenders. Found that ridiculous, but please keep an eye out for speculative behaviors! And also, if skirts could be a little longer, that would also discourage these guys from going under, ” said the Facebook user.

Another Facebook user also mentioned that to prevent these incidents, women should avoid wearing clothes that are too revealing.

He said, “in all fairness, if you were in a public place then whatever goes on there is public. If you feel embarrassed, the best plan is not to wear clothes that reveal more than you want from any angle.”

Of course, this led Denise to reply:

“The point here is not about what I wore. Are you saying I shouldn’t dress like a woman? Would wearing jeans or pants stop men like that from trying to violate a woman’s privacy and doing sick things like that? No.”

Who should be blamed? That man or her skirt?

Saying that women are to be blamed for wearing skirts is a wrong way of looking at crimes of this nature. What a woman wears should not be used as a way of explaining the cause of this incident. As a Facebook user explained:

It’s like saying if you wear a Rolex, you’re asking to be robbed. 5 years ago, your point might have some weight, but recent research have shown that rape / or behavior like the one Denise encountered does not necessarily correlate to the behavior or clothes of the person.



It happened basically because Denise is an female, you cant really ask someone to stop being a female.

To prevent incidents like this from happening again, Denise has said that the offender could be someone with a troubled mind. She wrote:

I sure hope he really has learnt his lesson. Some people are troubled and need psychiatric help. If he is reading this right now, I do want to believe you can change and that you WILL seek medical help. If you recognise signs of trouble in a friend or family member, perhaps you too should encourage them to seek medical help.

It is good to see Denise speaking up about this incident on social media to raise awareness. It is not clear if she has lodged a police report; after all, peeping is a crime.

Also Read: “Hi dear, :)”: A Case Of Harassment Between Daniella Sya And An Uber Driver