Wong would trawl places such as shopping malls on weekends or after work on weekdays to commit the offences. — The Straits Times/ANN
SINGAPORE: A financial analyst who started recording upskirt videos in Malaysia and Singapore in 2015 had nearly 500 voyeuristic videos in his possession by the time he was caught last year.
At least 285 of the videos captured clear images of his unsuspecting victims’ faces because he would return to his victims to try to capture their faces should he fail to do so the first time round.
Wong Kwong Yan, 37, would trawl places such as shopping malls on weekends or after work on weekdays to commit the offences.
He was caught red-handed by one of his victims on Jan 13 last year at a clothing store in VivoCity mall.
Wong was on Wednesday (Nov 24) sentenced to 13 months' jail after he pleaded guilty to one count each of voyeurism and insulting the modesty of women.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Andre Ong said of Wong’s modus operandi: “On each occasion, the accused would target a particular female victim who fitted his desired profile – below 50 years of age and who were wearing skirts or dresses.”
“Upon seeing a woman who he found fitted his profile, he would place his phone into a shopping basket or shopping bag... with the rear camera facing upwards after he activated the phone’s video recording function.”
After that, Wong would stand near the women to record upskirt videos of them.
He also owned online membership accounts on two pornographic websites, the court heard.
The DPP said: “Investigations further revealed that the accused uploaded on (one of the websites) about two videos and about 100 edited pictures of the upskirt videos he took of his unsuspecting victims.
“The accused uploaded the said videos... with his own account upon other site members' requests. The accused felt ‘excited’ and ‘happy’ when he uploaded (them).”
In the incident at VivoCity, a 31-year-old woman caught Wong in the act. But he managed to flee following a confrontation, and she alerted a store manager, who called the police.
Police managed to trace Wong by viewing closed-circuit television footage, and officers went to his home on Feb 5 last year to arrest him.
They also seized from him items such as a portable hard drive that contained the voyeuristic videos.
The court heard that Wong recorded more than 450 upskirt videos. Two of them showed girls who appeared to be below 18 years old. – The Straits Times (Singapore)/Asia News Network
