Man, 23, took upskirt photos of 2 women -- less than 2 months after being released from prison for snatch theft

A 23-year-old man used his phone to take upskirt photographs of two women, less than two months after being released from prison for snatch theft.

Muhammad Hairuldin Osman was sentenced on Jan 23 to three weeks' jail after he admitted to one charge of intruding into the privacy of a 20-year-old woman at a bus stop along Jalan Damai on March 6, 2017.

As he had re-offended while on a remission order, he was given an enhanced sentence of 21 days for breaching it, reports The Straits Times.

Previously, he had been given a year's jail for snatch theft in 2016.

He was released on Jan 10, 2017, on a remission order.

A second charge of taking an upskirt photo of a 24-year-old woman in an HDB lift on Mar 3 was also taken into consideration during sentencing.

Two witnesses, Mr Teo Chee Seng, 37, and Ms Nur Liyana Ahmad, 26, were in an Uber car when they noticed Hairuldin and the 20-year-old woman at the bus stop off Bedok Reservoir Road.

They saw Hairuldin bend down and holding out his mobile phone underneath the woman's dress with the camera lens facing upwards.

They decided to alert the victim and confronted Hairuldin after stopping the car.

He denied taking the photo but when the victim took the phone from him, she found an upskirt photo of herself.

Mr Teo detained the victim and Ms Liyana called the police.

Hairuldin's pro bono lawyer Ariel Lim urged the court to impose two weeks' jail instead of the four weeks sought by the prosecution.

She cited Hairuldin's below average range of intellectual functioning.

She said that her client had selective mutism, an anxiety disorder in which a person who is normally capable of speech cannot speak in specific situations to specific people.

Hairuldin could have been jailed for up to one year and/or fined for insulting the modesty of a woman.

Read the full story at The Straits Times.