A*Star research assistant spy camera to take upskirt photos of colleagues in toilet and women on escalators

Elena Chong
The Straits Times
17 April 2017

A former Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*Star) research assistant who entered female toilets at his workplace and took upskirt videos of his colleagues was jailed for six months and two weeks on Monday (April 17).

Raymond Loh Wai Mung, 31, who faced 468 charges, admitted to eight charges, including four for criminal trespass. He was terminated from the company on Feb 12 last year.

The offences took place sometime between 2015 and Jan 25 last year.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Ho Lian-Yi said that investigations showed that Loh bought a mini-USB spy camera in the shape of a thumb drive from the Internet in early 2015 for taking upskirt videos of women.

The spy camera was not recovered as he had smashed and disposed of it.

Loh would transfer the videos taken by the spy camera onto his company desktop computer. Most of the videos were taken at escalators in MRT stations and supermarkets.

Loh also took videos of his female colleagues when they used the toilet, and entered the female toilet to check whether it was in use.

The 25-year-old complainant saw Loh loitering outside the female toilet at about 7.10pm on Jan 25 last year. She had on several previous occasions noticed a person lurking outside her cubicle stall while she was using the toilet.

That evening, she pretended to have gone into the cubicle by slamming the door, while she remained outside.

Loh went in but said that he had entered the female toilet by mistake before leaving.

She reported the matter to the management. CCTV footage showed that he had followed her into the toilet six times before. The complainant made a police report.

The court heard that he used the spy camera to film upskirt videos of three female colleagues, aged 31, 26 and 30, in 2015.

Loh's lawyer Shashi Nathan said in mitigation that his client suffered from severe depression and was undergoing treatment.

Loh could have been jailed for up to one year and/or fined for each charge of insulting modesty. The maximum penalty for criminal trespass is a $1,500 fine and three months' jail per charge.