A local undergraduate studying at a top UK university has been sentenced to one year in jail and fined $2,500 by a court for secretly filming a female classmate taking a bath and using the toilet.

The undergraduate, Colin Chua Yi Jin (aged 24), pleaded guilty last July to committing crimes between 2015 and 2018. A court in January 2020 barred him from leaving Singapore and returning to the UK for further studies. The court also found that he is not fit to receive probation.

Chua’s modus operandis is to invite female acquaintances over to specific places. Before their arrival, he would’ve already installed a camera in the toilet. Chua has filmed “maybe three digit” worth of videos in total. He accredited the offences to school or work-induced stress, and stated that it “was an addiction” to him.

He was eventually caught and hauled before the law and he pleaded guilty in July 2021 to seven charges of insulting the modesty of women, as well as an eighth charge of possessing obscene films.

The court heard that Chua began committing the crime at the age of 18. In December 2015, after attending the graduation dinner of the junior college with his friends, he booked a hotel room and set up video equipment in the toilet to shoot a 14-minute video of a girl taking a bath. As of last August, the video was still appearing on porn sites.

Chua also took a video of a female classmate going to the toilet in 2016 when she was at his house for a party. The video was later circulated on pornographic sites.

The court originally prohibited the media from revealing Chua’s identity but a total of 11 victims of the case appealed, arguing that doing so would do more harm than good. The court finally decided to lift the ban, but his victims are still protected by the ban.