SINGAPORE, Jan 10 — A 20-year-old student was playing computer games at home when she realised that a man was smiling at her while standing outside the door of her Housing and Development Board flat. He then later unzipped his pants and touched himself inappropriately.

In the State Courts today, Tan Chye Hin, 42, was sentenced to two weeks’ jail after he pleaded guilty to insulting the victim’s modesty by making a gesture.

Another two similar charges were taken into consideration during sentencing.

The student’s name, as well as the location where the crime happened, cannot be published due to a court order to protect her identity.

Tan, a Singaporean, was unemployed at the time of the offence and living with his aged parents.

How it happened

After watching pigeons at Alexandra Food Market on the evening of Jan 10, 2022, Tan decided to head home and walked past the victim’s housing block.

Instead of continuing home, he took the lift to the fourth floor of the housing block instead.

As he walked along the corridor, he noticed the student’s unit and the student, who was in a pink T-shirt, playing computer games near the open front door.

He smiled and nodded towards her.

The student did not acknowledge him because she assumed that Tan was a guest at her neighbour’s house, court documents showed.

Tan then moved closer to the front gate to smile and stare at her. The student continued to ignore him.

He went on to unzip his pants and expose his private parts, with the intention to insult the modesty of the victim.

Tan then looked at the student as he started to touch his genitals in a sexual manner.

The court heard that the student saw Tan shaking his genitals when she looked up. Feeling shocked, she stood up to shut the door, while her dog barked at Tan.

He then left the block and walked home.

The student eventually made a police report on January 12 and Tan was arrested two days later after police officers looked through police camera footages that showed him going up and down the lift of the student’s housing block.

When seeking a jail term of between two and three weeks, Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Heershan Kaur argued that less weight should be placed on Tan’s history of schizophrenia because there was no causal link between his mental illness and the offence.

Referring to a report from a psychiatrist from the Institute of Mental Health, DPP Kaur said that Tan was in control of himself at the time of the offence and was acting on his own accord.

“He was not experiencing auditory hallucinations instructing him to touch himself and was not experiencing delusions that external forces were controlling him and making him commit the offence,” she added.

For insulting the modesty of a person by making a gesture, Tan could have been jailed for up to one year or fined, or both. — TODAY