IT project manager jailed for taking upskirt video
There was no one else on the the escalator, but an IT project manager chose to stand directly behind a couple as they were going up.
It was so he could take an upskirt video of the woman with his phone.
For this, American Peter Thomas Juliano, 36, was jailed for two weeks on Tuesday (Sept 5). He pleaded guilty to a single charge of intruding into the privacy of the 25-year-old woman. The offence took place on March 17 on the escalator from Somerset MRT station leading up to 313@Somerset mall.
Investigations showed that around 10am that day, the victim and her boyfriend alighted from the train at Somerset MRT station.
On the escalator leading up to the mall, the boyfriend was on the step in front of and above the victim.
Juliano, who was on his way to work, stood one step directly behind the victim.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Yang Ziliang said the victim did not pay attention to anything behind her until she felt something touch her right inner thigh just above her knee. She turned around and noticed Juliano standing on the step directly behind her.
She found that strange because there was no one else on the rest of the escalator.
She looked down and saw Juliano holding his mobile phone between her legs, below her skirt.
Suspecting him of taking an upskirt video of her, she grabbed his collar and sought help from her boyfriend and security officers.
Juliano struggled, but was ultimately detained by the victim's boyfriend and the security officers.
According to the victim, Juliano kept asking her not to press charges and to settle the matter privately. The police were called.
In his mitigation plea, Juliano's lawyer, Mr Amarjit Singh Sidhu, said that his client, who came here to work last year, was a "man of good moral standing" and had always been law-abiding. "Peter is truly sorry for his wrongdoing; this was a one-off incident that is absolutely out of character," said Mr Singh.
He also said Juliano's lapse in judgment was the result of the emotional instability he suffered when he returned from his break in the United States. This was compounded by immense work stress, the lawyer added.
District Judge Jasvender Kaur agreed with the prosecution that the offence called for a jail sentence, and said such offences were "quite prevalent''.
Juliano could have been jailed for up to one year and/or fined for insulting the modesty of a woman.
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