Guesthouse owner jailed for filming tourist bathing

GEORGE TOWN: A guesthouse owner, who secretly filmed an Irish tourist taking a shower, was jailed two months and fined RM7,000 for possession of obscene pictures and video on his mobile phone.

Ong Hock Soon, 38, pleaded guilty in a magistrate’s court yesterday to committing the offence at the Stewart Lane premises at about 10.30pm on Jan 28.

He was charged under Section 292(a) of the Penal Code, which carries a maximum three-year jail sentence or a fine, or both, upon conviction.

According to the facts of the case, the tourist was taking a shower in a bathroom when he saw a hand holding a phone over the bathroom door.

He rushed out and saw someone running into the next bathroom, where he caught Ong with a phone that contained a video and pictures of him taking a shower.

Defence counsel Cheah Eng Soon pleaded with the court not to impose a jail sentence, saying that it would affect Ong’s other job as a real-estate agent.

However, when sentencing, magistrate Mohamad Amin Shahul Hamid ordered the jail term to run from the date of arrest, Jan 28.