When she first met him at the university, she thought he was "genuine" and "polite".

She didn't really know him but thought he was a "friend" and never had to keep her guard up when she was around him.

So much so that she never suspected him when she thought she saw a phone peeking over the room divider in her boyfriend's dorm room while she was changing.

Her boyfriend, on the other hand, had his suspicions, but they had no evidence.

Four years later, while in reservist training, he took a look at the "friend's" phone — and discovered a 19-minute video of his girlfriend changing.

Disgusted and shocked

Sally (not her real name) told Mothership in an interview that when she found out about what their "friend", Dean Ng, had done to her, she was horrified.

"I felt violated," she said. "For him to betray our trust like that."

"The worst part is that this feeling sets in slowly and persists over a long period of time."

Even more shocking was when her boyfriend told her she was not the only victim.

There was a video of another female friend showering on his phone.

Sally then decided to make a police report.

According to a publicly available judgment dated Aug. 12, Dean Ng, full name Ng Sheng Wei Dean, was hauled to court with four charges of insulting the modesty of a woman, one charge of voyeurism and one charge of attempted voyeurism.

There were a total of three victims.

A gag order is in place to protect the identity of the victims.

Pretended to sleep

Sally was his first victim in an offence he committed on Nov. 25, 2018.

Ng was her boyfriend's roommate then, and there was a room divider between their beds for privacy.

That day, when she was changing her clothes, Ng was on the other side of the room.

Believing she was changing her clothes from the sounds, he positioned his phone at the front corner of his bed to record what was happening.

He then pretended to be asleep and did not get up or open his eyes, retrieving his phone only after Sally had left the room.

The video captured Sally fully nude.

Ng transferred the video to his laptop and deleted it from his phone.

It was not revealed how the video ended up on his phone when he was in reservist training with Sally's boyfriend, four years later, on Aug. 19, 2022.

Invited friend to his house to shower

The second victim, 30, was also a friend of Ng’s.

After hanging out with a group of friends on Aug. 15, 2020, they went to Ng’s house to shower before dinner.

Ng went to the third-floor toilet to turn on the lights, during which he placed his phone in the bathroom to record the victim showering.

He used a pair of swimming trunks to hide his phone.

Ng managed to record a 2-minute-13-second-long video of the second victim showering.

He's "remorseful" & can be "reformed": Lawyer

Ng pleaded guilty to the charges involving the first two victims, and the third charge was considered for sentencing.

According to the judgment, Ng's lawyers argued for a four-week imprisonment term for Ng, a much lighter sentence than the seven-month imprisonment term the prosecution had asked for.

His lawyers stated that a private psychologist had found Ng suffering from "adjustment disorder", which "clouded his judgment and impaired his decision-making ability, contributing significantly to his offending behaviour".

They said he "actively sought treatment after the offence", "progressed significantly in his rehabilitation", was "sincerely remorseful", "regretted his actions", and hence "demonstrated an extremely strong propensity for reform".

After reviewing two other reports from forensic psychiatrists, the district judge opined that Ng does not suffer from a mental condition.

Both psychiatrists assessed that Ng did not have a mental disorder during the offences, and one pointed out that Ng's private psychologist was not a medical professional.

Accused betrayed friends just to satiate lustful desires: Judge

The judge remarked that Ng had betrayed his female friends by secretly filming them to "satiate his lustful desires without regard to the detriment and harm it would cause".

He added that the court needed to send a strong message to deter such conduct and "to protect innocent victims from being exploited unknowingly".

He also noted that the offences were difficult to detect and might have gone unnoticed if Sally's boyfriend had not found "an opportune time" to check Ng's handphone.

The judge also said that while there was no evidence presented to him about the victims' emotional or psychological harm, he reasoned that it is "not unforeseeable" that harm would have been caused to the victims whose trust had been betrayed by a "friend".

Also, considering his early plea of guilt, the judge sentenced Ng to 28 weeks in jail.

Ng has appealed against his sentence.

Victim claims "friend" never apologised

Even though it's been a few years, and Ng had been sentenced to prison, it still leaves her a "terrible aftertaste" whenever she recalls what happened.

“I avoided wearing dresses or skirts for fear of being a victim of potential voyeurs out there,” she said.

"I'm not only afraid of strangers but even of people I assumed I could trust."

It just felt worse coming from somebody you knew, she said.

"He never even apologised."

Top photo courtesy of Sally