Former ITE lecturer pleads guilty after taking 335 upskirt videos
A lecturer from the Institute of Technical Education (ITE) pleaded guilty yesterday to taking upskirt videos of women in malls.
Chia Teck Huat, 41, was a senior lecturer at ITE and used modified pinhole cameras hidden in a laptop bag on his voyeuristic expeditions.
He was caught in October 2017 and suspended from his workplace.
An ITE spokesman told The New Paper yesterday that Chia was then dismissed in March 2018, and added that the school does not tolerate any form of sexual misconduct among its staff.
Yesterday, Chia pleaded guilty to taking upskirt videos of 335 victims from July to August 2017. He had faced three charges of insult of modesty, with one other charge taken into consideration.
For his modus operandi, Chia had bought mini cameras online, then dismantled and concealed them in a laptop bag. The lens of the camera would peek out from the side of the bag while it was connected to a portable charger.
At least two more cameras were kept in the bag as spares.
Chia prowled malls such as Plaza Singapura, Ion Orchard, Tampines Mall and Changi City Point, targeting middle-aged office workers in short skirts.
He was caught on Oct 23, 2017, when a member of the public became suspicious and followed him at Daiso in Plaza Singapura before calling the police.
Chia was arrested and his devices were seized. Some 335 videos were later recovered, each of a different unidentified woman.
Yesterday, Deputy Public Prosecutor Kathy Chu urged the court to jail him for 40 weeks, saying there was a high degree of planning involved.
She noted, however, that Chia had cooperated with the police and had undergone rehabilitation.
His lawyer, Mr Joshua Tong, asked for 24 weeks' jail instead, saying his client has attended 34 counselling sessions and has a one-year-old child.
"He is a father now, and this is a motivating factor for him not to reoffend," said Mr Tong. "And the (psychologist's) reports are that he does not have those urges any more."
The court heard that Chia now works as a part-time deliveryman.
District Judge Adam Nakhoda, however, noted that Chia went to significant lengths to film his victims. He said: "It was a fairly sophisticated modus operandi that the accused used in order to commit the offences."
He adjourned the case for sentencing on Dec 7. For each charge of insulting the modesty of a woman, Chia can be jailed for up to a year, or fined, or both.
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