A 29-year-old man was arrested on Thursday hours after he was caught on CCTV appearing to very blatantly take an upskirt photo of a teenage girl in Hong Kong.
Staff at a claw machine arcade on Fung Yau Street South in Yuen Long called the police after seeing the footage of a man in a white t-shirt taking out his phone, crouching down behind one of two girls looking at the machines, putting his phone between her legs, and appearing to snap a picture or two before quickly exiting the store.
CCTV footage circulating online shows the whole procedure took only a few seconds, and the two girls appeared to be oblivious to what had happened.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLlpIdc8GrM
HK01 reports that police received a report just before 4pm on Thursday from a male staff member at the arcade.
Officers arrested the suspect, surnamed Tang, on suspicion of outraging public decency.
In the past, those who were accused of taking upskirt shots or other explicit photos of someone without their consent were typically charged with “obtaining access to a computer for criminal or dishonest gain.”
The charge was introduced in the early ’90s to combat cybercrime, but became a catchall used to prosecute people for a number of smartphone-related crimes, including leaking exam questions and even making provocative comments on social media.
In April, however, the Court of Final Appeal ruled that the charge should no longer apply to people using their own phone or computer. The ruling meant that the Department of Justice had to re-evaluate 13 cases that were put on hold.
At the end of April, the Law Reform Commission urged the authorities to establish new laws on voyeurism and upskirting in order to plug the legal loopholes stemming from the ruling.
CORRECTION: Due to a translation error, a previous version of this story incorrectly stated that the suspect was arrested on suspicion of disorderly conduct in a public place. In fact, he was arrested on suspicion of outraging public decency. Coconuts HK apologizes for any confusion caused.
