Cool On The Exterior, Warm Within
A Piece of Shocking News
Monday, December 19, 2005 @ 12:33 AM
Teacher Jailed for filming up women's skirts
A secondary school teacher was jailed for six weeks yesterday for using a hidden digital video camera to film up women's skirts.
Loh Theng Siang, 28, a form teacher who taught English and art at the co-ed Boon Lay Secondary School in Jurong was caught at the esplanade park on Jan 21 while trying to film a woman using a camera concealed in a paper bag.
In court yesterday, the prosecution proceeded with one charge against him and took three other charges into consideration.
Loh, who is married, committed the offences on four occasions between Jan 19 and 21.
On the first occasion at about 8.05pm on Jan 19, Loh filmed up a woman's skirt while going up an escalator at Boon Lay MRT station. He did the same thing to two others on a train between 10.35pm and 10.40pm.
Two days later he was caught when the boyfriend of a 22-year-old woman he was trying to film at the Esplanade Park became suspicious and demanded to see what was inside his bag. He called the police when he saw the camera and realized what Loh had done.
In July, Loh was charged in court with intent to insult the modesty of a woman by intruding upon her privacy. The penalty is a jail term which may extend to one year , or a fine, or both.
In court yesterday, his lawyer Anand Nalanchandran submitted in mitigation a report which claimed that Loh's voyeurism was a psychiatric condition.
Dr Chua Hong Choon, a consultant psychiatric from the institute of mental health, said the condition is " characterized by repeated and intense sexual fantasies or behaviors concerning the act of watching an unsuspecting person who is naked, disrobed or having sex", which has " clinically significant distress or impairment in work, social or personal functioning". Loh had been harbouring these fantasies for many years, but acted on them only after he aquired a digital camera.
In court yesterday, Loh's wife, who is five months pregnant with their first child, submitted a personal appeal to magistrate May Mesenas asking the court for a compassionate sentence.
She said she was surprised he had committed such an act and based on what she knew of him, she would accept that he did it "out of human weakness".
The principal of the secondary school where Loh taught wrote a testimonial for him describing him as a dedicated teacher who "has no cause for the school to question his conduct or integrity" in his two years there. His pastor also said he was a "faithful man of integrity".
Magistrate Mesenas said in sentencing that she had considered some aggravating factors: that there was more than one victim and that Loh was a teacher in a secondary school.
It was the second such case this week. On Monday, a 29-year-old man was jailed for four weeks to film up a woman's skirt.
The above said was my bro's form teacher for 2 yrs. Despite my shock and initial misgivings, I guess I can accept it when my bro affirms that loh was a dedicated teacher while he was under his tutelage.
I just pray that no school girls fell prey to his ways before this. And I highly doubt that he would be able to practise teaching in Singapore ever again.
Of his poor, pregnant wife, I shudder to think what an awful impact this would have on her. In her shoes, I would be hard pressed to forgive my hubby for what pervertic things he has done, all for the sake for the unborn child.
If not for the child, I would... kick him out of the house, divorce him and castrate him!
Yet, from another point of view, I think I should divorce him all the more for the sake of the child. If he can prey on women, I can't imagine what he might do to...
I would never feel at peace leaving him alone with my baby, especially if it were a daughter..
*shudders*
~~~
On a lighter note, I have resolved to rid myself of Mng fervour. Am going to try my best at refraining from stepping into any Mng outlets from now on.
In the first 3 days of the sales, I have hit 5 Mng outlets and bought a ton of stuff = burnt a hole in my pocket. So from now on, I am staying far far away from any place that sells anything! (except where food is concerned)
May some entity above grant me some inhuman strength!
