Teen took upskirt videos and photos of teachers for more than a year

A teenager took upskirt videos and photos of his secondary school teachers for more than a year before getting caught.

The 17-year-old, who cannot be named due to a gag order, also took videos of himself performing sex acts in public.

He allegedly suffered from chronic loneliness and did not have any intimate relationships.

Yesterday, the court remanded him for a week and called for reports to assess his suitability for both probation and reformative training.

From March 2017 to August last year, the teen took upskirt photos and videos of his teachers. He took at least 10 upskirt videos of his teachers, with one such video lasting more than nine minutes.

He also took upskirt photos of a classmate in 2015.

In 2017, he tried to intimidate a 15-year-old student from another school into sending him nude pictures of herself.

On Aug 3 last year, he took upskirt photos of a sleeping student on a bus.

Other offences included two occasions on June 24 and Aug 25 last year, when he took videos of himself performing a sex act at a void deck.

Yesterday, the teen pleaded guilty to three charges of insulting the modesty of a woman and one charge each of possession of an obscene video and criminal intimidation.

A total of eight similar charges were taken into consideration.

Deputy public prosecutor Genevieve Pang told the court the teen did not have any past offences and asked the court to call for probation and reformative training reports.

REMORSEFUL

In mitigation, the teen's lawyer Rajan Supramaniam said he was remorseful and was influenced by pornography and voyeurism videos.

"He would spend most of his free time alone playing with his gadgets..." he said.

"We are not downplaying the gravity of his offences... he has realised it's significant, the impact and distress caused."

He added the accused was from a single-parent family, and that his mother now checks his phone daily.

He is awaiting enlistment into National Service, after getting his mother to write to the Ministry of Defence to ask for an earlier date.

District Judge Eddy Tham called the teen's acts perverse, adding teachers need to be protected.

"These acts must be sufficiently deterred in our classrooms so that no student will ever entertain thoughts about committing them," he said.

"Teachers already have a lot on their hands to deal with."

But he noted the accused was still young and had a good prospect of rehabilitation.

For each count of insulting the modesty of a woman, the accused can be jailed up to a year, or fined, or both.

For possession of an obscene object, he can be jailed up to three months, or fined, or both.

For criminal intimidation, he can be jailed up to two years, or fined, or both.

Alternatively, the court may also order probation and reformative training.

The teen is expected to be back in court on May 15.