Ex-teacher jailed five months for filming men in changing room
A subsequent raid of his home uncovered multiple devices containing a large collection of similar recordings.
A teacher was caught filming men in the changing rooms at MacRitchie Reservoir by a member of the public.
The witness initially believed that the man was recording his students and alerted the police. However, the victims did not include the students.
Subsequent investigations revealed that the man had taken illicit videos of other men in the changing rooms.
On Aug 26, Woo Weng Chuan, 51, who is no longer a teacher, was sentenced to five months and five weeks' jail, Channel News Asia reported.
He pleaded guilty to three charges, including voyeurism and making obscene films under the Films Act. Three other charges were taken into consideration for his sentencing.
Former secondary school teacher
Woo was a secondary school teacher at the time.
On Jun 1 2022, he was overseeing the track and field co-curricular activity at the MacRitchie Reservoir amphitheatre. His duties included looking after the students' bags and managing the start and end of training sessions.
During the session, Woo noticed several men showering in the open shower area of the amphitheatre toilet.
Feeling an urge to record them, he walked past the area multiple times, holding his phone with the camera facing outwards.
Caught by member of the public
A 33-year-old witness, who had just finished a run at the reservoir, noticed Woo after coming out of the shower.
He observed Woo holding a phone with the camera facing outward, pointing it towards several men who were showering naked.
The witness also saw Woo entering and exiting the toilet multiple times. At one point, he confirmed that the device was in recording mode by glancing at the phone screen.
Instead of confronting Woo, the witness alerted the police and followed the operator's instructions to take a photo of Woo for identification.
He then trailed Woo to a multi-storey car park, where police officers later arrived and detained him.
More videos uncovered
Police found videos of men showering in the amphithetre toilet on Woo's phone.
A subsequent raid of his home uncovered multiple devices containing a large collection of similar recordings, as well as pornographic material.
Woo admitted that he felt the urge to record the men he found attractive in changing rooms or shower areas.
Investigations revealed that 10 videos were filmed between Apr 14 and May 30 2022, showing men partially or fully naked in the changing room and shower area of a sauna.
Another 30 videos stored on his hard disk showed men partially or fully naked in the locker room of the California Fitness Gym in Novena between Dec 23 2010 and Jun 17 2011.
More than a dozen videos, also filmed at California Fitness gym, were recorded in Feb 2014 and were uploaded to Google Drive,
Woo said the clips were for his personal viewing and were not shared with anyone else.
The prosecution sought a sentence of 27 to 31 weeks' jail, citing the "significant" nature of the obscenity, given the large number of videos that captured the victims' private parts.
The defence, however, argued for a lighter sentence of 22 to 25 weeks, with lawyer Riko Isaac stating that Woo had confessed during investigations, was struggling with his sexuality, and committed the offences in a lapse of judgment.
Woo was granted permission to begin serving his sentence in September.
In response to CNA's queries, the Ministry of Education (MOE) stated that Woo had been "interdicted since June 2022, and is no longer teaching in any school".
"MOE takes a serious view of staff misconduct and will not hesitate to take disciplinary action against those who fail to adhere to our standards of conduct and discipline, including dismissal from service."