A doctor who recorded 3,260 upskirt videos in the span of at least four years between 2009 and 2019, and who has been described as "one of the most prolific serial upskirt recorders", has been sentenced to jail on Dec. 11, 2020.

Chu Ben Wee started recording these illicit videos during his post-secondary school days at Raffles Junior College, and continued to do so at various places of work, such as Changi General Hospital and Tan Tock Seng Hospital after he graduated from the school of medicine at the National University of Singapore.

His victims included both students at RJC, nurses and colleagues at the hospitals, according to court documents seen by Mothership.

Filmed videos using his 'special shoes'

The 28-year-old's modus operandi included hiding a camera in specially modified shoes, which he called his "special shoes".

Chu would cut a 1.5cm hole near the front of his black sports shoes.

He then inserted a GoPro camera inside the shoe and aligned the camera lens with the hole.

He would then be able to view the camera footage in real time via mobile applications downloaded on his phone.

He would also be able to control the camera's functions, like starting and stopping the video recording, through the applications.

Targeted women in short skirts and dresses

Chu targeted woman whom he found attractive, or those wearing short skirts or dresses, and would follow them closely.

He would then place his foot close behind the woman in order to record the upskirt video. He would record the video for about five seconds in order to capture the women's inner thighs and underwear.

If possible, he would also use his phone to record another video of the woman's face.

These video files would then be transferred to a hard disk, and would be meticulously named with the victim's estimated age, name -- if he knew them, race, as well as colour and type of underwear.

The file names also contained terms such as "young", "mature", "office lady", and "sweet young thing".

When Chu had the urge to masturbate, this system would allow him to access the files easily. He would masturbate while watching the videos.

First arrested in 2018

While a student at RJC, Chu recorded 666 videos in 2009 and 2010.

He claimed that he stopped recording such videos sometime in 2010, and resumed in 2017.

On Jan. 18, 2018, Chu was attempting to record an upskirt video at a Daiso store at Novena Square 2.

The victim felt something touch her ankle, and turned around to find Chu standing closely behind her. She also noticed that he was holding his phone close to his stomach.

Suspecting that something was up, the victim pretended to squat down and peruse items on a lower shelf.

She then noticed that Chu had a camera hidden in his shoe.

She shouted for help and confronted Chu. A passer-by helped to detain him and a Daiso staff member called the police.

After his arrest, he admitted that he had recorded videos of several women at various stores at the mall, and that he previously recorded upskirt videos of the people at the two hospitals he worked at.

A search of his house yielded at least 16,676 obscene films, upskirt and voyueristic videos of women in various states of undress or using the toilet, and included 2,945 upskirt videos Chu had taken.

He was released on bail, but reoffended again in 2019 while he was a clerk doing his National Service, reported CNA.

Using the same modus operandi, he went out to record more videos and was arrested a second time in April that year for filming upskirt videos at Plaza Singapura.

He was once again released on bail.

Infiltrated a JC to film upskirt videos

In July 2019, Chu went to greater lengths to film upskirt videos at Victoria Junior College.

He noticed that the school was holding a career fair from their website.

Aside from new black shoes, a GoPro camera, and other items, he also purchased a secondhand VJC uniform — a VJC PE t-shirt and long white pants from Carousell from S$20.

On the day of the career fair, he followed closely behind a woman who appeared to be a teacher, and managed to slip past the school's security guards at the main gate.

Once inside, he changed into the uniform at a toilet to blend in with the other students.

Chu then headed to the canteen to film upskirt videos of the female students using his "special shoes".

In total, he recorded 97 videos containing 309 separate upskirt incidents that day.

One of the female students noticed that Chu was walking slowly towards her friend, and that he kept pointing his foot forward and looking at his phone screen.

Suspecting that something was amiss, she continued to watch him, and realised that he would follow the victim very closely and lift up his foot for a few seconds while looking at his phone.

She then noticed there was a hole in his shoe and suspected that there was a hidden camera inside. She alerted one of the teachers, who managed to locate and detain Chu, who had changed out of the uniform by that time.

He was arrested after the teachers called the police.

He had initially admitted that he was just a visitor.

Watched porn since kindergarten years

In court on Dec. 11, the prosecution asked for at least 37 months' jail, stating that "such systematic and premeditated violation of women’s privacy at public places, in a workplace setting and most worryingly, at schools, inevitably causes considerable public disquiet and must be met with condign punishment."

The prosecution added that Chu's actions required "significant premeditation and planning", and used a "sophisticated mode of upskirting".

They noted the fact that Chu committed his offences at "widely used facilities" -- areas where women should feel safe -- and that his offences would cause public disquiet, fear and unease among members of the public.

According to CNA, Chu was assessed by the Institute of Mental Health (IMH) to be suffering from paraphilic disorder and major depressive disorder.

However, doctors determined that there was no contributory link between his illnesses and his offences.

Chu also told IMH doctors that he started watching pornography in kindergarten, up till secondary school.

Chu was subsequently sentenced to three years' imprisonment on four counts of insulting a woman's modesty.

Another 13 charges were taken into consideration.

For each charge, he could have been jailed for up to a year, fined, or both.

Top photo from Unsplash