SINGAPORE — Half a dozen arrests, narrowly escaping from a victim’s mother, and being caught by his fellow Singapore Institute of Management (SIM) students did not deter Tham Heng Yew from taking upskirt videos for five years.
He would cut a hole in one of his shoes, put his mobile phone in, and align its camera lens with the hole to film up victims’ skirts. Where possible, he also took videos of the victims’ faces afterwards.
After every arrest, he would get new shoes and mobile phones to commit more crimes when he was released on bail.
Tham, 27, was sentenced to 44 weeks’ jail on Wednesday (March 4) in the State Courts after being caught for the sixth and final time in July 2018. It was not mentioned in court if he was charged following each arrest.
He pleaded guilty last year to 30 charges of insulting a woman’s modesty, with another 138 similar charges taken into consideration for sentencing.
The court heard that he often struck at locations such as the Cotton On outlet at Nex shopping mall, which has unisex changing rooms, and H&M outlets.
When he was studying business management at SIM in 2016, he walked around the school taking upskirt videos of attractive females as well.
He was first arrested on July 19, 2013 when caught filming a female passer-by at a bookstore in Bukit Panjang Plaza.
SECOND ARREST
Read also: Man jailed for stalking university mate and filming up her skirt
The next time Tham was caught, he had taken advantage of a gap in the partition between two changing room cubicles at a Cotton On outlet.
On Jan 13, 2016, when a 24-year-old woman was trying on a black dress, he stuck his left shoe slightly into her changing room. But she soon noticed the offending footwear and what appeared to be a camera lens in it.
When she told her boyfriend about her suspicions, he went to alert the outlet’s staff members. Tham heard the commotion and knew the game was up.
Read also: Man, 26, arrested for insulting modesty of a female student at NTU
He then deleted the video footage from his phone and reformatted it to its factory settings, before switching his shoes for another pair he had in his backpack.
Still, he was detained by the woman’s boyfriend and staff members when he left the changing room.
The police discovered 179 obscene films on his laptop. He had downloaded 19 of them from the internet, while the others were upskirt videos he had taken in 2014 on his mobile phone.
THIRD AND FOURTH ARRESTS
About two months later, Tham was arrested again on the SIM campus.
Two fellow male students had followed him from a distance on March 28, 2016 after noticing his suspicious behaviour.
They saw Tham following a woman outside the school’s computer laboratory, placing his foot underneath her skirt for a few seconds and walking away, so they decided to confront him. But when he fled, they chased and detained him.
The police found another 43 upskirt videos on his laptop and mobile phone.
On Feb 12, 2017, Tham was caught for the fourth time after taking an upskirt video of a 14-year-old girl at the 313@Somerset shopping mall. Her mother spotted him placing his foot under the girl’s skirt and confronted him.
He reached down to remove his phone from his shoe and tried to flee, but the mother grabbed his shirt to prevent him from doing so.
He struggled to break free, tearing his shirt in the process, before running away. But he managed to drop his wallet with his personal bank and identification cards in it, which the police used to arrest him at his home.
By then, he had deleted all of the footage from earlier.
FIFTH AND SIXTH ARRESTS
On March 25, 2018, Tham was arrested for the fifth time at the Ion Orchard shopping mall. A loss prevention officer at the Sephora store there had detained him and called the police.
He admitted to taking upskirt videos of six unknown females in 2017 and 2018 at locations such as SIM, Raffles City shopping centre, and a Daiso store.
He was arrested for the final time on July 22, 2018 at a Levi’s store in Ion Orchard shopping mall. A sales assistant and her boyfriend noticed Tham behaving suspiciously, so the other man followed and confronted him before calling the police.
Police officers arrived and managed to retrieve several files Tham had deleted from his mobile phone.
‘DARK PERIOD IN HIS LIFE’: LAWYER
In mitigation last month, Tham’s lawyer Peter Keith Fernando told the court that the likelihood of his client reoffending was low, as he has been voluntarily getting psychiatric help and “comes from an exceptionally strong, close-knitted family”.
The lawyer told District Judge Adam Nakhoda: “This has been a dark period in his life. It was so dark at one point, he even contemplated suicide. All that is in the past.
“He has specifically asked me to inform Your Honour in open court that not only is he exceptionally remorseful for what he’s done, he wishes me to say he’s sorry to each and every one of the victims for what he’s done.”
Deputy Public Prosecutor Kenneth Kee responded that Tham had failed to show up for his follow-up treatment several times in the past, when he was still committing offences.
Mr Fernando replied: “The psychiatric treatment has certainly had a compelling effect in stopping him from re-offending (since his last arrest)… he is on the path of rehabilitation.”
For each charge of insulting a woman’s modesty, he could have been jailed for up to a year, fined or both.
Read more at https://www.todayonline.com/singapo...s-arrested-6-times-over-5-years-cut-hole-shoe
