SINGAPORE, Sept 3 — A secondary school discipline master admitted yesterday to filming upskirt videos of at least seven of his students and 38 colleagues.
From 2015 to 2018, he filmed as many as 12 upskirt videos of his students and 156 videos of his colleagues.
On one occasion, a male student from the school was caught filming upskirt videos of a female teacher.
Pretending to retrieve evidence, the discipline master confiscated the boy’s phone and used his own mobile phone to make video recordings of the upskirt videos and added them to his own collection.
The man, now 49, pleaded guilty to three counts of insulting the modesty of a woman yesterday. Five other similar charges will be taken into consideration during sentencing, which is set for November.
The man, who is married with three children, as well as the secondary school cannot be named due to a court order to protect the identity of the victims.
He had been working at the secondary school since 2008 and became discipline master in 2015. He also taught Chinese language to two classes of Secondary 4 students.
In response to TODAY’s queries, the Ministry of Education (MOE) said that the man has been suspended from duty since July 2018 and is no longer teaching in any school.
The court heard that one way he filmed upskirt videos was to lead female students into the discipline room, where he would get them to key something into the computer.
Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Yvonne Poon said that while the students were doing so, he would use his mobile phone to record an upskirt video without their knowledge or consent.
After filming the videos, he would transfer them from his phone onto an external hard disk using his office laptop.
He would also invite female colleagues over to his workstation for “data entry purposes” such as for attendance records, and similarly film upskirt videos as they were standing over his desk.
“The accused only invited female colleagues wearing skirts or dresses,” DPP Poon said. “He would not invite female teachers who were wearing trousers and seldom invited male teachers over to his workstation for data entry.” DPP Poon said that the man recorded as many as 12 videos of the same victim across multiple occasions. He did not share or publish the videos but used them for his own sexual pleasure.
At his mother-in-law’s home for a party in February 2017, he also took an upskirt video of a female relative while she was standing next to him.
His offences were discovered after a female teacher at the secondary school made a police report on July 14, 2018, after she suspected that the man had been taking upskirt videos of female teachers including herself.
His hard disk seized by the police was found to contain a total of 173 upskirt videos, most of which clearly captured the victim’s underwear.
Each video was titled with the victim’s name or initials if he knew who they were. Otherwise, he gave them vague descriptions such as “Student1” or “Lift Girl”.
Seeking a 12 — to 18-month jail sentence, DPP Poon argued that the man had abused his position as discipline master and the trust of his female colleagues in committing the offences.
“At least seven of the accused’s victims were students of the secondary school, which means that they would have been aged 16 or below and especially vulnerable to his predation,” she said.
“In committing the offences, the accused exploited their deference to his authority, as well as the trust that their parents reposed in the school and its faculty. He also abdicated his own responsibility to safeguard his students’ well-being and make the school premises a safe learning environment for them.” A doctor’s report from the Institute of Mental Health on Sept 2020 stated that the man was suffering from major depressive disorder at the time of the offences.
He had been grieving from the unexpected death of his mother in mid-2015 and his appointment as discipline master in end-2015 exacerbated his stress.
His wife also went through surgery in 2016, after which they had “drastically” less sexual intimacy, the report said.
DPP Poon said: “While these factors invite some sympathy, they do not excuse the accused’s conduct.” District Judge Brenda Tan called for a report to assess whether the man was suitable for a mandatory treatment order, which is a community sentencing option offered to offenders suffering from mental conditions that contributed to the offence.
For each count of insulting the modesty of a woman, he could be jailed for up to a year or fined, or both.
MOE said in its statement that it takes a serious view of staff members’ misconduct. “(We) will not hesitate to take disciplinary action against those who fail to adhere to our standards of conduct and discipline, including dismissal from service.” — TODAY
