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A FILIPINO clerk was jailed for four weeks on Friday for using his mobile phone to take a picture from under a woman's skirt.
Alex Peralta Cinco 36, pleaded guilty to insulting the modesty of a 26-year-old woman on an escalator at The Heeren, Orchard Road, on Aug 9.
A court heard that the woman was shopping there with a 37-year-old man when the latter noticed Cinco placing his cellphone beneath her skirt without her knowledge.
The cellphone was flipped over with the camera function facing upwards.
When the escalator reached Level 4, the couple approached Cinco and asked to see the contents of the cellphone. Cinco handed it over after the man said they were going to call the police.
Cinco, a first offender, said in mitigation that he came to Singapore to work and hoped to continue working here.
He said he was sorry for what he had done, and asked the court to give him a chance.
The police prosecutor who asked for a jail sentence said such cases had gone up, and there was a danger of photographs taken with cellphones being circulated in the Internet.
Cinco could have been jailed for up to one year of fined or both for the offence.
Police statistics show that 'upskirt' filming cases have been rising yearly. Last year, there were 50 cases of such outrage of modesty offences using electronic gadgets. This is nearly double the 28 cases in 2004. In 2005, there were 39 cases.
The culprits tend to snap 'upskirt' pictures, though others are also usingt modern technology and even smaller video cameras to peep into showers.
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