Cleaner secretly films boy, 16, masturbating in Causeway Point toilet, says he was getting evidence of littering

A man accused of recording seven videos of a 16-year-old boy masturbating inside a toilet cubicle in Causeway Point argued that he was trying to "gather evidence".

Tan Wei Sien, who said he worked as a cleaner at the time, claimed he wanted to get evidence of the victim doing a private sex act and littering inside the cubicle.

The victim had been eating a packet of rice in the toilet during the incident and later masturbated, according to the court judgment.

He claimed Tan had made a hand gesture at him through the cubicle partition, mimicking the act of masturbation.

Tan then allegedly asked whether the boy "wanted or not", which the victim understood to mean whether he wanted help masturbating.

Tan was convicted and sentenced to six months in prison on Jan. 22, and he has filed an appeal against it.

The victim's account

Tan and the victim were not known to each other, the judgment wrote.

In the evening of Oct. 17, 2024, the victim, dressed in his school uniform, was eating a packet of rice inside a toilet cubicle in Causeway Point.

After eating, he started to masturbate while watching "inappropriate videos" on his phone.

Shortly after, he saw a hand gesturing under the partition separating his cubicle from the one to his right.

He managed to record a five-second video of the gesture, and it was submitted as evidence in the court trial.

The hand movement was mimicking the act of masturbation, the judge said.

The victim also said he saw, through the reflection on the ground, that the person in the neighbouring cubicle started masturbating as well.

Feeling uneasy and uncomfortable, he used his phone to report that he was being sexually harassed on the National Anti-Violence and Sexual Harassment Helpline website.

He then left the toilet, but returned because he had forgotten his wallet, only to see Tan staring at him.

The victim went into a different toilet in the mall, and Tan soon followed him in.

He recognised Tan as the person in the neighbouring cubicle earlier, because he was wearing the same shoes and carrying the same bag, the victim said.

Tan was arrested later that same day, and gave a statement to the police.

Tan's account

In his statement, Tan said he was using the toilet when he noticed a shadow and heard what sounded like someone throwing a packet of rice onto the floor in the adjacent cubicle.

He also smelled food, and felt such behaviour was "unusual and inappropriate" for a toilet setting.

Deciding to investigate, he climbed onto the toilet bowl and peered over the partition between the cubicles, and saw the victim masturbating while holding his phone.

He then used his phone to record the victim, allegedly intending to "gather evidence" of his act of masturbation inside the cubicle.

He got down from the toilet bowl and reached a hand under the partition to "signal" to the victim and ask if he was masturbating, he claimed.

After the victim left the toilet, Tan exited his cubicle and saw rubbish and a food packet he had discarded on the floor.

When the victim came back to the toilet and then left again, Tan decided to follow him to determine if he would attempt to masturbate and litter again in another toilet, he said.

According to Tan, he did not enter the second toilet but observed the victim from outside, and saw him appearing to comb his hair.

Tan was later identified and arrested by the police at Causeway Point.

His phone, which was seized, was found to contain seven videos of the victim recorded within three minutes that evening.

Littering

Tan said in his statement that his primary intention was to film the victim throwing food and rubbish inside the cubicle.

"I work as a cleaner and feel strongly about cleanliness matters," he said.

"When I see someone acting irresponsibly by throwing food onto the ground, I feel angry about their behaviour, as they seem not to care about the cleaners who must clean up their mess."

He acknowledged it was wrong and inappropriate to record the victim, but emphasised that his intention was to gather evidence of the victim littering.

Mothership understands that Tan was not employed by Causeway Point.

The judge rejected his defence, saying that the videos Tan took focused only on the victim and his act of masturbation, and showed no sign of any litter being thrown in the cubicle.

The victim's video of the hand gesture mimicking masturbation also clearly suggested that Tan's approach towards the victim was sexual in nature, rather than a civic-minded intention to stop the victim from littering, the judge added.

Questioning evidence

In court, Tan denied that the evidence shown matched his admission in the statement, which damaged his credibility to the judge.

He sought to discredit the prosecution’s evidence by any means possible, but did not provide any reason why the evidence was unreliable or should be discarded.

According to the judge, he also filed many documents generated by artificial intelligence (AI) throughout the trial, which did not assist the court at all.

Sentencing

The judge felt that Tan's offence was a significant invasion of the victim’s dignity and privacy, and the fact that Tan kept the videos meant there could have been repeated invasions of privacy afterwards.

"He is a shameless voyeur who had unlawfully infringed upon the dignity and privacy of a 16-year-old student in a public toilet in an egregious and persistent manner, causing a considerable level of distress to the victim," the judge said.

"Even when confronted with overwhelming evidence of his commission of the offence, the Accused unreasonably and cowardly denied his wrongdoing, displaying an utter lack of remorse and introspection throughout. The sentence imposed is commensurate with his criminal offending and a just punishment for his deplorable behaviour."

Tan is currently on bail pending appeal.

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