A male secondary school teacher in Singapore took students to a reservoir for training. While the students were in the training, he went to a public restroom to secretly film others showering. On Tuesday morning (August 26), he was sentenced to five months and five weeks in prison.
According to Shin Min Daily News, the defendant is 51-year-old Woo Rongchuan (phonetic translation), who was a secondary school teacher at the time of the incident. He faced six charges, including voyeurism and possession of obscene videos, and he pleaded guilty to three of them. The remaining charges were taken into consideration during sentencing.
According to the case details, on the morning of June 1, 2022, a 33-year-old witness was jogging at MacRitchie Reservoir and later went to the public men's restroom to shower. When he walked out of the restroom, he saw the defendant holding a mobile phone entering the restroom.
The witness found the defendant's behavior suspicious and followed him back into the restroom, where he discovered the defendant was filming a naked man showering in the open area with his phone.
The witness saw the defendant repeatedly entering and leaving the restroom doing the same thing. He also checked the defendant's phone screen and confirmed he was recording a video, so he reported the matter to the police. Under police instruction, the witness took a photo of the defendant and followed him to a multi-storey car park. Police arrived and arrested the defendant.
Investigations revealed that the defendant was a teacher in charge of extra-curricular activities at a secondary school. On the day of the incident, it was a training day for his students. He was generally responsible for looking after the students’ bags and being in charge of the proceedings at the start and end of training.
The defendant admitted that when he entered the men's restroom and saw someone showering in the open area, he developed the idea to secretly film them. He also admitted that he filmed in the same way more than once on that day.
Obscene Videos and Pornography Found at Home
Besides the mobile phone used for filming at that time, the police also confiscated another 12 electronic devices from the defendant's home, including laptops, tablets, mobile phones, hard drives, and memory cards. They found multiple obscene videos and porn clips of different men.
The defense lawyer pleaded for leniency, stating that the defendant had thoughts of secretly filming men since 2005, and is now undergoing treatment.
The defendant admitted that whether in changing rooms or showers, whenever he saw men who attracted him, he found it hard to control himself and would take out his phone to film them.
The defendant's lawyer, Rick, said that the defendant is from Malaysia and is now a permanent resident of Singapore. After discovering his sexual orientation, the defendant did not have many friends to talk to, and he had no one with whom to share his emotional struggles.
The lawyer also said the defendant did not deny his crimes upon arrest and cooperated with police investigations. He is now actively seeking treatment to prevent reoffending and pleaded with the judge for a lighter sentence.
The defendant also recently underwent surgery for a retinal tear and will have a follow-up on September 5. He may need another two weeks of observation and therefore applied to defer his imprisonment.
The defendant will begin serving his sentence on September 23.