Hong Kong man jailed for 6 months for voyeurism after disguising himself as pupil, entering female school toilet to plant hidden camera
- Principal magistrate says Cheung Chun-hong seriously invaded privacy of pupils, handing him half-year jail term after guilty plea on three voyeurism charges
- Cheung sneaked into female bathroom stall at school last year while dressed in uniform, before pupils discovered him and phone he had planted
Principal Magistrate Ko Wai-hung said on Wednesday that Cheung Chun-hong, a senior operations officer at Citybus, had seriously invaded the privacy of the pupils at Good Hope School in Wong Tai Sin.
“The crime is more severe as the victims are underage and their school is a place where they expect their privacy to be protected,” Ko said.
Cheung was sentenced at Kowloon City Court to half a year in jail on three charges of voyeurism.
The court heard he had sneaked into a female bathroom stall at the girls’ school last October, dressed in the institution’s uniform and wearing make-up.
Two pupils discovered Cheung in the bathroom and also found a mobile phone he planted inside the stall.
Cheung escaped the scene after the pupils confronted him and was arrested at an industrial unit in San Po Kong four days later.
Officers found 16 sets of girls’ school uniforms, female undergarments, wigs and make-up after searching the site and his home in Tseung Kwan O.
Ko said he believed Cheung intended to enter the school, rejecting the defence argument that he ran inside in a panic after being caught taking photos outside the campus.
The act of planting a phone in the bathroom was more severe than simply trying to look inside briefly, the magistrate added.
“I cannot rule out the possibility that the defendant would have saved and distributed the footage obtained if he hadn’t been discovered,” he said.
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Cheung had pleaded guilty to the three charges and had been remanded in the Siu Lam Psychiatric Centre until sentencing.
The defence counsel in mitigation asked Ko to consider Cheung’s guilty plea, remorse and ongoing psychological treatment.
Ko, in his sentencing, said he had considered a psychology report which noted Cheung had a medium-to-high possibility of committing similar crimes again.
“Cross-dressing is a personal preference but cross-dressing to commit crimes to satisfy one’s sexual desire is unacceptable. The court must interfere to protect the interests of minors and reflect society’s disgust towards this,” Ko said.
“I hope you can better control yourself.”
