Trainee doc jailed for bid to film nurse in shower
Elena Chong, Court Correspondent
Thu, Aug 02, 2007
The Straits Times
THE trainee doctor who rigged up a digital video camera in a hospital's common shower room to film a staff nurse will spend two weeks behind bars.
Tan Swee Chin, 28, admitted last week to insulting the modesty of the 24-year-old woman at Tan Tock Seng Hospital on Jan 25.
The deputy public prosecutor, who told the court last week that the prosecution would not press for a jail sentence, changed tack yesterday.
Mr Ng Der Lim argued that there was planning and premeditation in the way Tan set up the camera.
Also, he added, Tan would have recorded digital images, which could easily have been circulated if they fell into the wrong hands.
The doctor had hung a pouch containing his digital camera at chest level facing the shower head in the stall, with its video function switched on.
All it took for the game to be up was the alert nurse noticing a green light emitting from two holes in the pouch.
She had just gone off duty and was about to shower.
She reported the incident to the security staff and the police were called in.
Tan's counsel Ravinderpal Singh, pleading for the court to show leniency, asked that his client be given just a fine or a day's jail and a fine.
Referring to a case in which an army captain was let off with a fine for trespassing on school premises and exposing himself to schoolgirls there, he said this was an instance where the courts granted a second chance to an accused person who had taken steps not to repeat the crime.
Mr Singh, however, conceded that his client did not suffer any medical or mental problem. He had committed the offence as a result of work stress, sleep deprivation and the absence of family support.
He also said that Tan had neither obtained nude images of the victim nor had plans to circulate the film.
But District Judge May Mesenas, agreeing with the prosecution, said there was definite premeditation and planning on Tan's part.
He had abused the trust his colleagues had - that they could shower without being intruded upon.
Such an offence, easily committed with the help of technology, clearly involved strong public interest.
A jail sentence had to be imposed, she said.
Tan could have been jailed for up to a year or fined $2,000, or both.
