Cop Caught Man Who Took & Watched Upskirt Videos in MRT Train

Video reviews are pretty prevalent nowadays, what with gazillions of Youtubers hoping to earn a quick buck with fun-oriented assessments of popular content.

However, it should be noted that there is a clear difference between reviewing a video in a light-hearted manner and reviewing an upskirt video in public space.

Because while one is still somewhat legitimate (save for copyright strikes, perhaps), the other is quite clearly not.

Cop Caught Man Who Took & Watched Upskirt Videos in MRT Train

Royston Kesavan, 40, was sentenced to six weeks’ imprisonment on Wednesday (10 March) for insulting a woman’s modesty.

Apparently, he had taken seven upskirt videos of his classmate, and was caught while reviewing them on the train.

The student at Parkway College of Nursing and Allied Health, who was taking a Master’s degree in health administration, had convened with several classmates for a group discussion on 26 September 2019.

Having met up at a room at Academia @ Singapore General Hospital, he decided to take an upskirt video of a classmate sitting across from him.

Apparently, she was the only one with a skirt that day.

For thirty minutes, Kesavan situated his phone under the table and discreetly filmed.

He ended up taking seven videos, each of varying length. He only stopped after he succeeded in obtaining a clear view of the victim’s inner thighs – which occurred on his seventh attempt.

Video Review

At roughly 10:10 p.m., Kesavan decided to review one of the videos.

No, not at home.

He was reportedly on the train towards Pasir Ris MRT station at the time.

Mid-review, however, he was chanced upon by an officer with the Public Transport Security Command – who happened to be on patrol.

The officer approached him and they subsequently alighted at City Hall Station – where Kesavan was requested to surrender his phone.

Reluctant, the accused handed over his spare phone instead, but his fragile endeavour failed.

Kesavan eventually gave in and passed over the offending phone, with the illegal videos found in the deleted folder.

He was apprehended on the spot.

Sentencing

In court, Deputy Public Prosecutor Phoebe Tan pushed for an imprisonment term of eight weeks.

She said: “There is a clear element of persistence in the present case… He was increasingly emboldened with each attempt.”

She stated that save for the third and final attempts, the duration of the videos had lengthened progressively.

Despite appeals from the defence, the judge ultimately agreed with the prosecutor.

“The persistence in this case is quite extreme,” he said.

“(The accused) took longer and longer videos, he was certainly goal-oriented and intent on capturing an upskirt video of the victim.”

As such, he felt that a prison term was required.

It should be noted that Kesavan could have faced an imprisonment term of up to a year, or a fine, or both for the crime.

Prevalent

If you scroll through the Goody Feed app every day, you’d know that, sadly, cases of voyeurism are becoming prevalent.

Last year, a 34-year-old man was arrested for insulting a traffic police officer after she reminded him to pay his traffic fines.

Apart from making insulting comments, the man also sent the woman upskirt images of an unknown person.

The man was reported and the police arrested him on 3 June.

Earlier this year, a former director of an MNC was jailed 12 weeks on Monday (11 Jan) for filming up the skirts of his female colleagues and sister-in-law.

Hired in 2013, he was subsequently fired for the offences in 2019.

And in 2020, a former teacher admitted to two charges of insulting a woman’s modesty and two additional charges made against him on Wednesday, 19 July.

The former teacher had taken upskirt videos of several women between November 2017 and September 2019.

Featured Image: kandl stock / Shutterstock.com (Image for illustration purpose only)