Singapore: Former Teacher, 51, Sentenced to Jail for Filming Male Victims in Changing Rooms

A 51-year-old teacher was sentenced to five months and five weeks’ jail on Tuesday, August 26.

This comes after a member of the public caught the teacher filming male victim in locker or changing rooms in the men’s restroom at MacRitchie Reservoir.

Thinking the teacher was filming his students in the restroom, the witness called the police. However, the students were not among the victims.

Woo Weng Chuan, who is no longer a teacher, was later found to have taken illegal videos of other men in changing rooms after police checks.

Woo entered a guilty plea to three charges, including voyeurism and producing pornographic movies in violation of the Films Act. Three more charges were considered.

There was no gag order in place in this case, and the victims’ ages were not disclosed in court documents.

Woo was a secondary school teacher, the court heard.

On the morning of Jun 1, 2022, he was with some students at the MacRitchie Reservoir amphitheater, as he was the teacher in charge for the track and field co-curricular activity.

Woo was typically in charge of handling the start and finish of training sessions as well as looking after the students’ bags while they were in training that morning.

Woo noticed some men taking a shower in the open shower area at the amphitheater restroom while the students were training.

He switched on his phone’s recording feature because he felt the need to record them taking a shower. Then, holding his phone with the camera facing out, he walked around several times.

After taking a shower in the amphitheater restroom, a 33-year-old man who had gone for a run at the reservoir came out and saw Woo.

As he walked around, he saw Woo holding his phone with the camera pointing outwards, pointing at a number of naked men taking showers in the open shower area.

The witness observed Woo repeatedly going in and out of the restroom. He also looked at the phone’s screen to make sure it was in recording mode.

The witness made the decision to keep the victims in the dark about what was happening in order to prevent things from getting worse. Instead, he followed the operator’s instructions to take a picture of Woo for identification and called the police.

After that, he followed Woo to a multi-story parking lot until police showed up and took him into custody.

When the police raided Woo’s house, they discovered videos of men taking showers at the amphitheater restroom on his phone. When they confiscated his devices, they discovered a large number of pornographic and unidentified male videos.

Woo acknowledged that he had the impulse to record whenever he saw attractive men in showers or changing rooms.

Ten videos showing men in the sauna’s shower and changing areas, partially or completely nude, were discovered by the police between April 14, 2022, and May 30, 2022.

Thirty more videos from his hard drive showed unidentified men in the Novena California Fitness Gym’s locker room, either completely or partially nude. These were recorded between Dec 23, 2010, and Jun 17, 2011.

Woo acknowledged that he watched the clips for his own amusement and claimed not to have shared the videos with anybody else.

Another 13 videos on Woo’s Google Drive, taken in February 2014, showed men in the locker room of the now-closed California Fitness Gym location in Novena, partially or completely nude.

Woo claimed that because his phone’s storage was insufficient, he had moved the videos to his drive.

The prosecution requested 27 to 31 weeks in prison, claiming that the nature of the obscenity was “significant” because a sizable portion of the videos showed the victims’ private areas.

Instead, defense attorney Riko Isaac of Amolat & Partners requested a sentence of 22 to 25 weeks in prison.

He claimed that Woo, who had admitted during inquiries, was having sexual difficulties and had made the offenses due to a lack of self-control.

The judge allowed Woo to begin his jail term in September.