Porn-addicted NSF who took upskirt videos of 26 women in a week for the ‘thrill’ gets jail

SINGAPORE — After meeting his mother for dinner and with some time to spare before going for his music lesson, Dylan Chia Yong Wei saw a woman who “attracted his attention” and decided to record an upskirt video of her.
He got caught red handed after the victim felt something touching her in between her legs. Investigations later found that Chia has done similar acts multiple times before, including just before he met his mother that day.
On Thursday (Sept 12), the 24-year-old Singaporean was sentenced to four months’ jail.
He pleaded guilty to one count of voyeurism. Two other charges, one each for voyeurism and possession of obscene films, were taken into consideration for sentencing.
The names of the victims cannot be published under a court order to protect their identity.
The court heard that on May 9 last year, Chia, who was a full-time national serviceman working at Pasir Laba Camp, reached home at about 4pm.
He decided to kill time by walking around at Jurong Point before meeting his mother for dinner at 6.45pm at Jurong East.
While browsing for books at the Popular bookstore there, he saw some girls wearing skirts who attracted his attention.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Heershan Kaur said in court documents that Chia “felt the urge” to record upskirt videos of them, and did so.
Prior to that on the same day, he had also recorded an upskirt video of a girl in her school uniform, though it was not mentioned where exactly this happened.
Chia later met his mother and had dinner with her at the basement of JCube mall, before parting ways with her while waiting for his music lesson to start at about 7.45pm.
While waiting, he saw a woman going up an escalator, followed her and recorded her.
The victim felt something touching her and turned, to see Chia taking away his phone from in between her legs.
When confronted and asked to hand over his phone, Chia tried to delete the videos.
The victim sought help from a passerby to take the phone from him. With the passerby’s help, the victim checked Chia’s phone and saw numerous upskirt videos.
The police was called and Chia was arrested on the same day.
An analysis of Chia’s phone during investigations discovered at least 31 voyeuristic videos of 26 unsuspecting unidentified female victims taken without consent between May 4, 2023 and May 9, 2023.
DPP Kaur said that Chia had an addiction to pornography and masturbation.
“When he was watching pornography shortly before his arrest, he chanced upon videos of other people taking upskirt videos, which made him feel like trying to do the same to experience how it felt like,” she added.
When he took an upskirt video for the first time on May 4 at Clementi MRT station, “he felt that it was thrilling”.
However, the thrill subsided and that led him to keep taking such videos “so that he would feel that little amount of excitement”, said the prosecutor.
Seeking a jail term of four to five months, DPP Kaur said that Chia’s offences involved a sizeable number of victims and his actions were premeditated.
While he committed them for a limited period of six days, he had made multiple recordings each day, with increased regularity. It was “purely fortuituous” that Chia was caught early, otherwise he would have continued to offend, she added.
Chia’s attempt to delete the videos and refusal to handover his phone also showed a lack of remorse on his part, added the prosecutor.
For his voyeurism offence, Chia could have been sentenced to two years behind bars, a fine, caning or a combination of any of such punishments.