SINGAPORE – While working as a analysis employees member on the Nanyang Technological University (NTU), a Chinese nationwide was caught taking an upskirt photograph of a lady at a buying centre in Orchard Road.
During a raid of his house final yr, police discovered comparable photographs of about 400 girls in numerous places, together with at NTU, numerous buying malls and MRT stations.
Guo Zhihong was sentenced to 10 months and 5 weeks’ jail in courtroom on Monday (March 21) after he pleaded responsible to 2 voyeurism prices and one cost of insulting the modesty of a lady.
District Judge Kok Shu En agreed with the prosecution’s labelling of Guo as a “prolific serial upskirter” given the variety of girls he had taken photographs of.
According to courtroom paperwork, Guo was working at NTU’s School of Civil and Environmental Engineering on a short-term employment cross on the time of the offences.
An NTU spokesman instructed The Straits Times that Guo’s employment with the college was terminated on April 22 final yr.
“NTU has a zero-tolerance stance towards all forms of harassment, including voyeurism and sexual misconduct,” the spokesman added.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Lee Wen Kym instructed the courtroom on Monday that at about 6pm on April 11 final yr, Guo went to Orchard MRT station with plans to have dinner alone and report upskirt photographs.
At about 8.15pm, a person who was strolling from Ion Orchard in direction of Orchard MRT station along with his girlfriend, noticed Guo strolling carefully behind two different girls whereas holding his cellphone under one of many girls’s shorts.
The man – Mr Seah Choon Kong – and his girlfriend continued observing Guo as they walked in direction of Wheelock Place.
While Guo and the 2 girls had been on an escalator, Mr Seah noticed him take upskirt photographs of one of many girls. When they reached the basement degree, Mr Seah requested the 2 girls if Guo was their buddy.
DPP Lee mentioned: “After confirmation that (Guo) was not their friend, the witness told (them) that (Guo) had been following them for some time and had behaved suspiciously, by standing close to them and filming them from a low angle.”
Mr Seah then confronted Guo and requested to see the photograph gallery on his telephone.
Guo refused and denied taking any upskirt photographs. He was additionally seen fiddling along with his telephone, seemingly making an attempt to reset it however Mr Seah stopped him from doing so.
When Guo ultimately unlocked his telephone, he confirmed Mr Seah and the 2 girls a random album that had no photographs. He additionally dimmed his display so the others couldn’t view it clearly.
He gave them many excuses on why they might not examine his telephone.
When he tried to go away, Mr Seah and two different male passers-by detained him, whereas Mr Seah’s girlfriend notified the safety officers of Wheelock Place.
They questioned Guo, who once more denied taking upskirt photographs, and refused to point out them his photograph gallery.
The police had been referred to as and cops discovered a number of photographs of girls’s buttocks in his telephone.
Guo admitted he had recorded upskirt photographs of girls with out their consent previously few weeks.
On April 12 final yr, police raided Guo’s house and seized two different cellphones, a laptop computer, two iPads and a tough disk drive.
Upon investigation, it was discovered that Guo had recorded upskirt photographs from 2015 till his arrest in 2021.
DPP Lee mentioned Guo photographed full-body again views and upskirt views of girls in skirts, shorts or yoga pants whom he discovered enticing.
In her sentencing submissions, the DPP added: “The offences are intentionally dedicated with pre-meditation because the accused has admitted to planning outings with the aim of recording upskirt photographs of girls.
“This deliberate, persistent course of offending conduct underscores the need for specific deterrence.”
Speaking through a translator, Guo mentioned in mitigation he had taken the photographs with a telephone and didn’t purchase tools equivalent to a pinhole digital camera.
He added: “I took nonetheless photographs as an alternative of movies and admit that I had not (considered) the victims…
“I have been overseas for more than three years without going home… I will not reoffend.”
For every voyeurism cost, Guo may have been jailed for as much as two years and fined.
For the depend of insulting a lady’s modesty, he may have been jailed for as much as a yr and fined.
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