“Singapore is a safe place,” they said.

Unfortunately, when you have creepy lechers skulking around MRT stations taking upskirt videos of women, it’s much more difficult to keep Singapore safe.

Take this man, for example.

Man Sentenced to 8 Months’ Jail for Taking Upskirt Videos 

On Wednesday (30 June), 45-year-old Yap Seng Gim was sentenced to eight months’ jail for taking upskirt videos of women.

He had pleaded guilty to three counts of insulting a woman’s modesty. Another three charges were taken into consideration during his sentencing.

For one charge of insulting a woman’s modesty, Yap could have been sentenced to one years’ jail, fined or both.

Yap, who had taken more than 200 upskirt videos of women between 2012 and 2018, was arrested on 14 September 2018, when one of his victims caught him red-handed.

According to Lianhe Zaobao, around 8.50am that day, Yap had started following a 36-year-old woman at Esplanade MRT Station as he found her attractive.

He was filming up her skirt on an uprising escalator when the victim suddenly turned around, feeling that something was not quite right.

Noticing Yap behind her, the victim suspected that he was taking upskirt photos of her. Grabbing Yap’s arm, she asked him why he was taking photos of her, and demanded for him to hand his phone over.

When the victim tried to run, the victim immediately shouted: “He took my picture!”

This had caught the attention of a passer-by, who took Yap’s phone away and proceeded to call the police.

It was revealed later that the police had discovered a total of 217 upskirt videos in Yap’s phone.

Yap also admitted that he would follow and target women in short skirts on escalators, and that he would later masturbate to the upskirt videos he took of them between 2012 to 2018.

Man Had Voyeuristic Disorder

As reported by CNA, Yap was diagnosed with voyeuristic disorder after being assessed by psychiatrists at the time of the offences.

However, the doctor also said that despite this disorder, Yap had maintained a reasonable degree of control and volition over his actions. The doctor pointed to Yap’s goal-directed nature and level of planning involved, as well as his efforts to avoid detection as proof of this.

During the court hearing, Deputy Public Prosecutor Huo Jiongrui requested for between nine to eleven months’ jail, pointing out that Yap was goal-oriented, deliberately targeting women in short skirts.

The prosecutor also added that Yap had committed the offences in public transport areas for over six years.

Man Started Doing So After Wife’s Death 

Yap was going through a “period of intense pain”, argued Yap’s defence lawyer.

Yap’s wife had died in a traffic accident in 2008 while they were trying to work through a rocky patch in their marriage. His father soon followed in 2014 after dying of cancer.

Yap had started taking upskirt videos of women in 2012.

“He was shattered but did not give himself time to grieve. He soldiered on in life but was in a daze. It was at this time that he started acting on urges to take videos,” said the lawyer.

Yap’s lawyer also highlighted that his client was remorseful, adding that Yap had sought medical help. Allegedly, he had also seen his arrest as a wake-up call that exposed his “wretchedness”.

Wow, very dramatic wording here. 

It seems like using his ex-wife’s death as an excuse didn’t work, however, as the judge pointed out that Yap had remarried his current wife in 2012.

Disagreeing with the fences argument that his client did not know what he was doing, the judge said that at the time of his offences, Yap had already been in his second marriage.

A letter from Yap’s new wife was also cited by his defence lawyer. In her letter, Yap’s wife talked about the “shock, embarrassment and challenges she has had to endure”.

She was also concerned about the effect of Yap’s jail sentence on his two young children, given that Yap had stopped working to take care of his children. Instead, Yap’s wife was the breadwinner of the family.

Despite saying that Yap appeared to have grown bolder as he took more videos over the years, the judge also considered his guilty plea, clean record and cooperation after his arrest.

She also granted Yap’s request to defer his jail term to July.

Featured Image: TY Lim / Shutterstock.com