Lawyer who took upskirt photos & outraged modesty of colleague gets struck off the rolls

The man did not turn up for any of the disciplinary proceedings.

Nigel Chua | May 19, 2022, 04:57 PM

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A lawyer who took upskirt photos, and outraged the modesty of his former colleague at law firm Drew & Napier was ordered to be struck off the rolls of advocates and solicitors on May 19, reported CNA.

This means that he will no longer be allowed to practice as a lawyer in Singapore.

The man's offences were committed in 2017, and he was jailed for four weeks after being convicted on two charges of outraging the modesty of a woman.

Neither the accused nor the victim can be named as a result of a gag order.

The offences

The man was working in the same team as his former colleague at the time, and would frequently go for meals and movies with her and another colleague.

There were two incidents, in April and October 2017, which were the basis of the charges against the man.

The April 2017 incident took place at around 8pm in the victim's cubicle.

The man came up from behind the victim and pretended to be looking at her screen while taking photos of the victim's chest and bra.

He headed back to his own office to view the photos before returning to her cubicle to take more photos, this time of her underwear.

After looking through the photos in his office, he then deleted them.

In October 2017, the victim was having lunch in her office room.

The man entered her room, closed the door, and sat on the floor while talking to her.

When she turned to face him, he decided to take upskirt photos of the victim's exposed underwear.

He also sat on the victim's desk and pressed his thigh against her upper arm while talking to her.

He then returned to his office to view the upskirt photos before deleting them.

The victim made a police report a month later.

Tried to emotionally blackmail victim

The man's former colleague said in a victim impact statement that he had been one of her "closest friends", CNA reported.

She said he had tried to get her to drop the case, engaging in "emotional blackmail" by bringing up their mutual friends, his mother who was ill, and even his own safety.

The victim said this led to her harming herself.

She recalled how she would continue to run into the man after reporting the offences to the police, encountering him in the Supreme Court building.

Did not turn up for disciplinary proceedings

The disciplinary proceedings against the man took place before the Court of Three Judges, the highest disciplinary body that deals with misconduct by lawyers.

The proceedings commenced after the Law Society of Singapore applied for him to be suspended.

The man did not turn up for any of the disciplinary proceedings, reported CNA.

This was despite multiple attempts to notify the man of the proceedings, in person, by courier, over the phone, and via email.

He did not respond to any of this communication.

Chief Justice Sundaresh Menon, who delivered the judgment on behalf of the Court of Three Judges, said the man's actions suggested defects of character that made him unfit to be a member of the legal profession.

His "premeditated and persistent" misconduct, "opportunistic exploitation" of the victim in a workplace setting, and his pressuring of the victim to drop the case were highlighted in the judgment.

The fact that the man had initially claimed trial — instead of pleading guilty at an earlier stage — was also taken into consideration.

The court's judgment also found that the man's conduct was "egregious" and had caused grave dishonour to the profession as a whole.

Top image via Pamela Buenrostro on Unsplash