SINGAPORE: A 27-year-old man was convicted on Thursday (Sep 21) of one charge under the Films Act for possessing 280 explicit videos for the purpose of distribution.

Joel Chew Wei Chen, a sales engineer, was a member of three online forums dedicated to explicit content. There, he had uploaded and traded hundreds of videos of unsuspecting women and girls caught using the toilet or in changing rooms in various states of undress.



Deputy Public Prosecutor Tang Shangjun said the victims were in “private places” where “the expectation of privacy therein is sacrosanct”. “This expectation of privacy has been shattered … Now, hundreds of women and girls have had their most private moments secretly captured on film, and circulated (online).”

Advertisement

The Web forums showed that hundreds of victims were filmed using hidden cameras installed all over Singapore, in public toilets, cafes, churches, schools, offices and changing rooms around the island. Though Chew did not actually make the films, he actively traded in them, DPP Tang said.

The prosecutor noted that the faces and private parts of many victims are clearly visible in the videos, and it would be “intensely humiliating” if a victim one day finds a compromising video of herself on the Internet. The prosecution pushed for a jail term of at least six months.

The court heard that it is close to impossible to remove the videos from circulation, given that Chew traded them with hundreds of forum members, who probably also traded the videos with others.

Police had been alerted by the Ministry of Education about explicit videos of schoolgirls making the rounds on forum Sammyboy. An investigation led the police to Ali V P Mohamed, who had started an online group called “SG Horizon Club” to collect as well as facilitate distribution of obscene films.

Advertisement

Advertisement

The police identified Chew based on information from Ali, who had divulged Chew’s username. He was arrested in November 2016, and four hard drives containing 775 films were seized, 280 of which were later certified to be obscene.

Four others – including Ali – have been arrested in connection with the case. It is the first prosecution of its kind involving members of a large online community dedicated to the distribution of explicit films of women and girls taken in Singapore. Chew is the first of the group to be dealt with. He will be sentenced on Oct 5.

He could be jailed for up to two years and/or fined S$2,000 per film, up to S$80,000.