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A Singaporean man who took upskirt videos of 10 women between July and September of 2019 claimed that he did so to "experiment" and "satisfy his curiosity" about his phone camera and whether it could take high-quality videos like the ones he saw online.

On Friday (Apr. 16), 28-year-old Abel Tan Yew Hong was jailed for 11 weeks after pleading guilty to three counts of insulting the modesty of a woman, with another seven counts taken into consideration, according to The Straits Times (ST).

Stood behind women on the escalator

According to court documents seen by Mothership, Tan was at Serangoon MRT station around 8:34pm on Sep. 5, 2019 when he noticed a woman wearing a skirt in front of him.

He followed the woman up an escalator and took an upskirt video. He proceeded to follow the woman up three separate escalators, taking a video that lasted one minute and 19 seconds.

The following day, on Sep. 6, 2019, at around 6:40pm, Tan took another upskirt video when he noticed a woman in front of him wearing a dress, this time at Bedok MRT station.

On Sep. 7, 2019, at around 4:56pm, Tan was at Suntec City when he again took an upskirt video of a woman in front of him.

Each time, he used the same method of standing on the step of the escalator behind his victims and angling his phone so that its camera was facing upwards.

Other than these three incidents, Tan also admitted to taking upskirt videos of seven other women between Jul. 24, 2019 and Sep. 10, 2019.

He faced another seven charges for taking the videos, and these were taken into consideration for his sentencing.

Caught when another man spotted him taking video

Tan was finally caught on Sep. 10, 2019 at Bedok MRT station, when another man saw him taking an upskirt video of a woman at around 7pm.

The man stopped Tan and brought him to the MRT staff on duty, who then called the police. Officers responded to the call and arrested Tan.

His phone was seized and examined forensically, and various upskirt recordings of unknown women were recovered from it.

"Intention was merely to experiment" with phone's camera: Defence lawyer

According to ST, Tan's lawyer — Marshall Lim — asked the court for a 10-week sentence, as compared to the prosecution's push for 11 weeks.

Lim stated that Tan, who was working as an engineer at the time, had graduated from a local university and had a master's degree.

He also added that Tan was working for a major international semiconductor company, reported ST.

Lim argued that Tan took the upskirt videos in order to "satisfy his curiosity" about why upskirt videos that he watched online varied so widely, where some appeared to be of high quality and others of very low quality:

"His intention was merely to experiment and to find out if his cellphone camera could take the high-quality videos he saw on the Internet."

Tan's girlfriend, who he has been in a relationship with since junior college, was reportedly disappointed but has since forgiven him, and they continue to plan to get married, according to ST.

The district judge allowed Tan to defer his 11-week sentence in order to settle his personal affairs, and he is currently out on bail of S$5,000.

Tan is expected to surrender himself on Apr. 26, reported ST.

Each count of insulting the modesty of a woman carries a maximum penalty of a year in prison, a fine, or both.

Top photo by Matthias Oberholzer on Unsplash.