National Dental Centre S'pore staff, 28, took over 600 photos of patients' chests, when he was hired to photograph teeth & jaws

While working as a photographer at the National Dental Centre Singapore (NDCS), a man took over 600 photos of 25 female patients' chests when he was supposed to be taking photos only of their teeth and jaws.

He shot these voyeuristic photos for about three years, from June 2021 to May 2024.

Most of the victims were under 25, including two 13-year-olds.

The oldest victim was 38.

Elgin Ng, a Singaporean who is now 28, was handed a total of 30 charges on Jun. 13, including 25 charges of voyeurism, and one for intentionally distributing the voyeuristic images to his friend.

On Nov. 18, he pleaded guilty to nine of the charges, while the remaining ones will be considered during sentencing in December, CNA reported.

His task and NDCS's procedure

According to court documents seen by Mothership, Ng's primary role at NDCS was to photograph the teeth and jaws of patients who were scheduled for jaw surgery, or as otherwise required by the dentists.

If a dentist determined that photographs of their patient were needed, they would make a request on NDCS’s Electronic Dental Records (EDR) system.

Ng, stationed in the photography room, would receive the request from the system, and call the patient into the room.

Based on procedure, he would take photographs solely of their facial region, primarily around their teeth and jaw.

For added modesty, he was also required to provide the patient with a blue board to cover their chest, regardless of the patient's gender.

Additionally, for female patients, Ng was required to either have a female staff present in the room, or to keep the room’s curtains open.

After taking the photos, Ng was to extract the photographs from the camera’s memory card, transfer them to a secured hard drive owned by NDCS.

Then, he had to use an NCDS computer to upload them onto NDCS’s internal system and shared drive, so dentists could access the photos.

He was not allowed to retain any of the photographs for personal use.

How he took voyeuristic photos

Investigations revealed that Ng seized opportunities when his photography colleague was not present in NDCS to take unauthorised voyeuristic photos of female patients.

He chose girls and women whom he found attractive, or those who were wearing revealing clothes, and noted down their names and contact details by accessing the EDR system without authority.

He would take the required photos of their teeth and jaws, then take additional voyeuristic photos of their cleavage.

If the patient had not been scheduled to get photos taken, Ng would approach them and lie that their dentist had requested for photos.

Going against procedure, Ng did not give these patients the blue board, and kept the curtains closed while taking the photos.

He would surreptitiously arrange the cameras in positions that were prohibited by NDCS — from a top-down angle to capture the top of the victim's chest, a bottom-up angle to capture the bottom of their chest, or both.

Keeping the photos

Ng would transfer the voyeuristic photos to his personal thumb drive rather than the NDCS hard disk, and delete the photographs from the camera’s memory card to prevent getting caught.

Additionally, he accessed the NDCS's internal system without authorisation to download photos of the victim's faces, as he wanted to match their faces to the voyeuristic photos he had taken.

He created folders in his thumb drive for each victim, containing their respective names, photos of their faces, and the voyeuristic photos he took of them.

He was, in effect, assembling a "catalogue" of the victims, the prosecutor said.

Ng took and retained these photos for personal sexual gratification purposes, and masturbated to them.

On at least two occasions, he forwarded some of the voyeuristic photos, along with images of the respective victims' faces, to a friend via Telegram, without the victims' consent.

How he got caught

Ng's offences were finally uncovered when one of the victims, an 18-year-old, made a complaint on Apr. 16, 2024.

She said she was repeatedly being called to the photography room for photos even though her doctor made no such requests.

Ng had taken a total of 31 voyeuristic photos of this victim over three occasions in 2022 and 2023.

Following the complaint, NDCS made a formal inquiry process into Ng's conduct, and arranged for him to provide his version of events in May 2024.

After he learnt of this, Ng resigned before the inquiry sessions and did not attend them.

On Jun. 6, 2024, a representative of NDCS lodged a police report about his offences.

Sought an imprisonment sentence

The prosecutor proposed a total sentence of at least two years and five months' imprisonment for Ng.

"For three years, the accused abused his position as a public healthcare worker to satisfy his own perverse desires," the prosecutor said.

This meant a severe breach of trust by the public.

The prosecutor also highlighted that the large number of voyeuristic photos taken over three years showed that Ng was "extremely persistent" in his offending, making conscious, deliberate, and sustained efforts to commit the acts.

NDCS's response

An NDCS spokesperson told CNA on Nov. 18 that they have been in touch with the affected patients and their family members to offer support and assistance.

Following the incident, NDCS has further tightened the photo-taking process to have chaperones present with patients, and more regular audits of access to dental records.

Top images from Canva and Eric Chan/Google Maps