Academic who took 71 upskirt videos jailed 18 weeks
A Taiwanese academic who took upskirt videos of at least 71 women using a pinhole camera attached to his shoe was sentenced to 18 weeks' jail yesterday.
Tsai Wei-Feng, 41, who faced 71 charges of insulting modesty, admitted to 10 counts committed at Takashimaya Shopping Centre on Orchard Road on Dec 17, 2016. The remaining charges were considered in sentencing.
Tsai, a senior research fellow at National Sun Yat-sen University at the time, was caught when a 22-year-old woman noticed him behaving oddly.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Jason Chua told the court that she was with three friends at the basement of Takashimaya department store that evening when she felt a bump on the haversack that she was carrying.
She turned and saw Tsai loitering around her friend and was seen placing his left foot at the bottom of the latter's black dress.
They decided to follow Tsai and one of them later confronted him as he was leaving the store. He was detained by the security staff.
A pinhole camera from his left shoe with eight video recordings was seized by the police.
DPP Chua said the investigation showed that Tsai had enabled the video recording mode in his pinhole camera and put it on his left shoe with its camera lens facing up while in the toilet before committing the offences from around 7pm.
He would follow, walk close to and loiter around female victims by filming their underskirt without their knowledge. In one case, he filmed one victim at least 15 times after loitering around her for a few hours.
Seeking at least 18 weeks' jail to be imposed, DPP Chua said the most striking aggravating factors were the highly pre-meditated offences and Tsai's substantial number of charges.
Tsai's lawyer Foo Cheow Ming said his client, who was diagnosed with voyeurism in 2015, admits that his lack of self-control led him to succumb to temptations.
Get The New Paper on your phone with the free TNP app. Download from the Apple App Store or Google Play Store now