SINGAPORE: A male nurse who took photos and a video of his colleagues in a hospital's unisex bathroom was jailed for 12 weeks on Wednesday (Jun 26).

The 27-year-old Singaporean man cannot be named, along with the hospital and the victims, due to a gag order.



The court heard that the man had taken photos and a video of at least eight women in a unisex staff bathroom in the hospital's emergency department around May 2018.

He would slide his Samsung Galaxy S7 mobile phone under the divider separating his cubicle from the victim's and take photos of her. These shots included women changing into their scrubs, and also showed one of them relieving herself.

His scheme went awry when he took a video of a 24-year-old nurse on May 11 last year.

The man had known the nurse for about two years before the incident, and they entered the bathroom together that day, going into adjoining cubicles.



The man was attracted to the victim, the court was told. He switched on the video mode of his phone and slid it under the divider to take photos of her while she was changing out of her scrubs.

The woman noticed the mobile phone as she put on her shoes, and the man was heard cursing before withdrawing his phone and leaving the toilet.



He deleted the video after watching it, and the victim lodged a police report, said Deputy Public Prosecutor Shenna Tjoa.



"OUT OF CURIOSITY"

After the man was arrested, his phone was seized and examined. It contained compromising photos of women in the unisex bathroom.

He admitted to taking photos of the women, doing so "out of curiosity as he wanted to know what they looked like without clothes", court documents said.

He would wait in the cubicle at the staff bathroom and take photos when he heard someone enter the cubicle next to him. If he saw that it was a man, he would stop, but if it was a woman, he would "take a few more photographs for his own viewing pleasure", the court was told.

He pleaded guilty to four charges of insulting a woman's modesty, with another four charges taken into consideration.

The prosecution asked for 14 weeks' jail, while the man's defence lawyer said her client had been forgiven by his girlfriend and asked for six weeks' jail.

District Judge Adam Nakhoda said six weeks' jail was "obviously inadequate" and sentenced the man to 12 weeks, ordering his mobile phone to be forfeited to the police for disposal.

The maximum sentence for insulting a woman's modesty is a year's jail, a fine, or both.