A Singaporean doctor accused of insulting the modesty of hundreds of women at various locations by taking upskirt photos and videos without their knowledge via ‘special shoes’ has pleaded guilty to all charges and was sentenced to three years’ jail on 11 December (Friday).
As reported by The Straits Times, the suspect, 28-year-old Chu Ben Wee, has been taking indecent photos and videos up unsuspecting skirts for over 10 years, starting from when he was still in junior college back in 2009.
He would conceal a GoPro camera in what he would often refer to as his ‘special shoes’, where he would strategically align his feet under girls’ skirts in public so to record their underwear. He would then transfer his videos onto a hard disk, giving videos titles relating to factors such as the victims’ race, estimated age and type of underwear, so that he could easily access the videos whenever he felt the urge to masturbate.
Chu had taken a total of 3,260 upskirt videos when arrested by the police.
However, this isn’t the first time Chu has gotten in trouble with the law for his indecent acts.
According to Today Online, Chu was first caught in January 2018 when one of his victims noticed him acting suspiciously at a Daiso outlet in Novena Square mall.
The victim had squatted down, pretending to look at store items on a bottom shelf, only to notice the camera in his shoe and reported him to the police immediately.
While police investigations were still ongoing, Chu continued to take 231 videos of 184 victims after he was released from police custody, before being caught for re-offending once again at Plaza Singapura mall. He was arrested on 27 April 2019 and released on police bail, only to re-offend once again three months later.
This time, Chu had managed to sneak into a junior college career fair wearing a college school uniform he bought online to take upskirt videos of more unsuspecting girls.
Fortunately, he was caught and confronted by a teacher and student at the event, and subsequently reprimanded by the police soon after. Further investigations revealed that he had the school uniforms of two other junior colleges among his belongings.
Chu has since pleaded guilty to all charges against him and sentenced to three years’ jail time. And while Chu was diagnosed with paraphilic and major depressive disorders (where paraphilia refers to sexual interest in atypical situations or objects), no contributory link between his mental illnesses and the offences he committed can be found.
Also read: Underage Boy Asks Singaporean Vlogger To Help Him Buy Cigarettes During Livestream
