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A gag order has been lifted by Chief Justice Sundaresh Menon to make it legal to identify a Singaporean undergraduate, Colin Chua Yi Jin, 23, convicted of illicitly filming 12 women.

The gag order was lifted in the High Court on Sep. 24, 2021.

Photos of Chua are out in the local Chinese press.

Chua's photos were taken when he left court previously, but have not seen the light of day until now.

Here are the details of the latest development as reported by The Straits Times, Yahoo, and Today.

Convicted perpetrator: Colin Chua Yi Jin, 23.

Crime: Chua has been convicted of illicitly filming 12 women. He filmed the women over three years from 2015 when he was 18 years old and in junior college, through his National Service years, and into his undergraduate days.

Charges: Admitted to seven counts of insulting a woman’s modesty and one of possessing obscene videos.

Guilty: Chua pleaded guilty at his hearing on July 29, 2021.

Application to lift gag order: When Chua pleaded guilty, the prosecution applied to have the gag order lifted.

Lifting of gag order challenged: Chua's defence lawyer, Kalidass Murugaiyan, pointed out that the last 12th victim had not given explicit consent then.

Who lifted gag order?: Chief Justice Menon lifted the gag order in a criminal motion in the High Court.

He said gag orders are meant to protect victims, and in this case, they consented to having the perpetrator's identity made known at the risk of being identified.

Charges relating to the 12th victim were also withdrawn, so her involvement in the case was not relevant.

Why?: A total of 11 identified victims who are between 20 and 23 years old now, all agreed for the gag order to be removed.

Moreover, there appears to be an asymmetry of exposure.

Some of the victims have had their illicitly taken videos circulated online, while Chua's identity has been kept under wraps.

Chief Justice Menon also acknowledged that imposing gag orders is "a detraction from the principle of open justice", because the interest is the protection of victims.

What victims said: The victims said it will do more good than harm as there could be others who are victims and might not even know it.

The victims are also feeling guilty they might have introduced friends to Chua, and they could have also been preyed upon.

Partial gag order: A gag order is still in place to cover the victims’ identities, their relationship to the culprit, Chua's current university, and the names of the schools they attend.

What Chief Justice said: Chief Justice Menon told the defence lawyer that Chua just wanted to “take advantage” of the protection that a gag order afforded him.

The judge also said the defence’s application to keep the gag order was done under the guise of protecting the victims and "suggests he was acting altruistically to benefit others".

Defence ordered to pay cost of application: The prosecutor asked for costs of S$2,000 to be ordered against the defence for its application to not lift the gag order.

Chief Justice Menon accepted the prosecution's application.

Sentence: Chua has not been sentenced by State Courts yet.

No probation: The court heard on Sep. 20 that Chua was not recommended for probation.

Next date in court: Chua will next appear in a pre-trial conference on Oct. 18.

About the case

In December 2015, Chua took a 14-minute video of his female friend showering after putting a recording device in the toilet of a hotel room.

He and several friends booked the room after their junior college’s prom night.

In early 2016, the junior college principal informed the woman about the video and that it was online.

The video had ended up on pornographic websites and have been viewed hundreds of thousands of times.

Another offence involved recording a 19-year-old female victim relieving herself in a toilet in Chua's residence.

He had invited her over for a Christmas gathering in December 2016.

Her video also ended up on a porn site.

In 2018, Chua filmed another woman, 20, relieving herself when she visited his residence in 2018.

He set up a recording device under the sink.

Chua filmed two other women in his home toilet in another Christmas gathering in 2018.

Another victim, 21, visited him at his university in the United Kingdom, after he offered to give her a tour of the place.

Chua filmed her relieving herself at his place.

The police then raided Chua's residence in mid-2019.

At least 16 videos and 124 upskirt photographs were found from his electronic devices.

Investigators were unable to recover all the videos Chua took as he had the habit of deleting and recovering them from time to time.

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