SINGAPORE, Sept 3 — While working as a cleaner at a company, Sul Ahmad used a camera disguised as a pair of spectacles to film his female colleagues changing.

On Monday (September 2), the 51-year-old was sentenced to seven months’ jail after pleading guilty to intentionally recording another person doing a private act without the person’s consent.

Another two charges were taken into consideration in sentencing.

The 29-year-old victim cannot be named due to a court order banning her identification.

What happened

The victim was Sul’s colleague at the time of the offence.

Court documents state that it was the woman’s usual practice to change in and out of her uniform in the company’s changing room, so that she did not have to wear her uniform in public outside of work.

After finishing work at about 3.30pm on October 27 last year, she proceeded to change in the room.

While she was doing so, she noticed a bright red light flashing from the pair of spectacles, which had been left on a small cupboard. The spectacle’s lenses were facing her.

When she picked up the spectacles to look at it, the woman noticed that its frame had a very small camera lens on it.

She reported the matter to a manager, who examined the spectacles and later retrieved a secure digital (SD) card from its frame.

The manager arranged for another female employee to view the content in the card.

That employee then confirmed that the SD card contained video footage of the woman changing her clothes in the changing room. Sul was also captured placing the pair of spectacles in the room.

Sul realised that the pair of spectacles were missing when he returned to the changing room later that day.

He knew that his actions had been discovered and he quickly left the changing room.

Later that day, he sent messages to the woman to apologise, but did not state why he was apologising.

Findings from police investigations

On the evening of the day the spectacles were discovered, an employee in the company’s human resources department made a police report. The pair of spectacles were seized by the police.

Investigations revealed that Sul had bought the glasses from e-commerce platform Lazada.

Sul knew that his female colleagues would usually change their clothes in the changing room and so, he placed the spectacles in the room to film them without their consent.

He would then view the video recordings on the SD card using his mobile phone, and would retain the clips that captured his female colleagues changing for his “viewing pleasure”.

He did so on multiple occasions between October 16 and 27 last year.

On October 27, his ruse was uncovered because the camera’s low battery led to it showing a flashing red light.

Eight videos of the victim changing were found in the SD card of the seized pair of spectacles. The videos captured her face clearly while she was in her undergarments.

Sul was arrested on July 4 this year.

Delivering her sentencing remarks on Monday, District Judge Sharmila Sripathy-Shanaz said that Sul’s offence was premeditated, since he had bought the spectacles with a hidden camera, and thought about where to position them so as to record his colleagues changing.

She also highlighted the abuse of trust, because the victims would “no doubt have trusted colleagues like (Sul) to respect their privacy” and his actions had thus “breached the privacy these women were entitled to expect”.

District Judge Sharmila also pointed out that the offence was not a one-off incident, but a “series of intrusions” on the victim’s privacy.

For intentionally recording another person doing a private act without their consent, Sul could have been jailed for up to two years, fined or caned, or sentenced to any combination of such punishments. — TODAY