A 27-year-old sales engineer was convicted on Thursday of one charge under the Films Act for possessing 280 obscene films for the purpose of distribution. Joel Chew Weichen, who pleaded guilty, was discovered to be a participant of three online forums with sexual, explicit content.
According to The Straits Times, Chew was a member of Sammyboy Forum, SG Horizon Club and LittleSG.
It was on those sordid platforms that he uploaded and shared videos of unwitting women and girls in various states of undress captured by hidden cameras in public toilets, changing rooms, fast food outlets, cafes, churches, offices and even schools all around Singapore.
After a police raid on his home on Nov 25, four hard disk drives were found, with a total of 775 films – 280 of which were obscene – stored on them. Although Chew did not film the videos, he actively traded in them, said Deputy Public Prosecutor Tang Shangjun.
“This expectation of privacy has been shattered,” DPP Tang said. “Now, hundreds of women and girls have had their most private moments secretly captured on film, and circulated.”
As the faces and private parts of numerous victims were clearly visible in the videos, and the offence was planned and premeditated, the prosecution sought a jail term of at least six months.
The court also heard that it would be nearly impossible to stop all the videos from being circulated online, as they had already been traded between Chew and hundreds of forum members, reported Channel NewsAsia.
Chew was one of five men arrested last November after reports emerged of compromising photos and videos of unsuspecting females making rounds online.
He is the first of the group to be prosecuted, and he will be sentenced on Oct 5. He could be slapped with a maximum of two years in jail and/or fined $2,000 per film, up to $80,000.
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