SINGAPORE, May 7 — Knowing that a male resident at a home for the disabled was mentally incapacitated, a 60-year-old cleaner at the home photographed the victim’s genitals while the man was at a urinal.
Lee Chook Lim did so despite knowing that the victim was not able to give real consent due to his mental disability.
The victim’s name and the address of the home for the disabled cannot be published due to a court order.
On Monday (May 6), Lee was sentenced to four weeks in jail after he pleaded guilty to intentionally recording the victim in the midst of a private act without his consent.
A separate charge of recording the victim using the urinal was taken into consideration.
Lee will begin his sentence on May 20.
Victim unable to give consent
A memo from the home dated Sept 6 last year and prepared by a social worker stated that the victim was diagnosed to have “mental retardation” when he was a child.
The memo also stated that the victim has been certified by a doctor to be permanently mentally incapacitated and was unable to provide consent on his personal welfare, property and financial matters.
Police investigations revealed that Lee knew the victim was a resident at the home and that he believed the victim had “mental issues”.
Lee and the victim became acquainted with each other about two months before the offence, but the victim never spoke to Lee.
On Aug 21 in 2022, the victim was using a urinal at a toilet in the home when Lee entered the toilet.
While the victim was still urinating, Lee asked if he could take a photograph of the victim’s private parts.
He also curled his index finger and thumb in a C-shape to mimic the action of taking a photograph using a camera, and pointed to the victim’s genitals.
After the victim nodded, Lee used his mobile phone to take a picture of the victim urinating at the urinal. The victim’s private parts were captured clearly in the photo.
Court documents stated that Lee knew the victim was unable to give real consent due to his mental disability, and he knew that he was recording the victim doing a private act without the victim’s consent.
When the victim finished using the urinal, he turned to the direction where Lee was standing.
Lee then took a close-up shot of the victim’s penis without asking the victim if he may do so.
What he did was uncovered when the police checked Lee’s mobile phone while following up on a separate incident he was involved in that occurred on Sept 11, 2022. Court documents did not state what this incident was.
A few days later on Sept 15, the police arrested Lee for further investigations. He was then released on bail from police custody the next day.
Section 90(b) of the Penal Code states that any consent given by a victim is not a consent when the victim is mentally incapacitated and thus unable to understand the nature and consequence of giving his consent — in this case, to having his genitals photographed.
In her sentencing submission, Deputy Public Prosecutor Ashley Poh had sought a jail term of six to eight weeks, saying that the victim was vulnerable and easy to exploit due to his mental disability. The victim was also “non-verbal” and Lee was aware of this.
DPP Poh added that there is a high level of intrusion and invasion of the victim’s privacy.
In cases such as these, there is also the potential for repeated invasions of the victim’s privacy long after the offence had taken place, in that the offender is able to view the record repeatedly for his own perverted pleasure, allow others to view the same on his device and even circulate it to others online.
This potential harm is further amplified since the victim is identifiable and the photo reveals the victim’s face.
For intentionally recording another person doing a private act without their consent, Lee could have been jailed for up to two years, fined or caned, or been given any combination of these punishments. — TODAY
