24
1
Updated: 11:45 PM, Aug 27
Police are investigating an alleged voyeurism incident in NTU Hall of Residence 14 that occurred around 2pm on Wednesday (Aug 26).
NTU said in a statement that campus security was alerted to the incident at around 3.45pm. The university is assisting the police in their investigation, it added.
The alleged incident occurred between two male neighbours who lived two doors apart in Hall 14, Block 66.
When Soapbox visited the scene at 4.30pm, four uniformed police officers and two investigating officers were seen speaking with students. Campus security was also present.
No arrest had been made when the police left the scene at 6pm.
The alleged victim, third-year student Ethan (not his real name), said he was naked in the shower when he heard his bathroom stall door creaking.
The 23-year-old Mathematics student said when he looked up, he saw a black phone peeking over the door with its camera pointed at him. At first, he had no clue who it was.
“I shouted at him and opened the door, and saw him running out of the toilet,” he told Soapbox.
Ethan said he realised that the alleged culprit was his neighbour, as he remembered the latter’s dark blue clothes from when the student held the bathroom door open for him moments earlier. It was the first time they had ever interacted, he said.
He added that after clothing himself, he confronted the student outside their rooms. By then, the alleged peeping tom had changed his clothes, said Ethan, who has lived in Hall 14 for three years.
Soapbox understands the alleged culprit is a second-year NTU international student.
Ethan claimed the student said this was the first time he had committed such an act and asked if they could settle the matter quietly through payment.
The student said in Mandarin that he was being “playful” and “curious” and insisted he did not manage to take any footage, Ethan added.
He said the alleged culprit tried to prove his innocence by flipping through images on his phone, including those from the “Recently Deleted” folder. But Ethan added that the phone shown to him was pink – a different colour from the phone he had seen in the shower.
Ethan notified the authorities shortly after.
“I never thought these kinds of things would happen to me. Staying in hall has been clean so far and I thought it has been pretty safe,” he said.
When asked for an interview, the accused student declined to comment. He was moved out of NTU on Wednesday evening.
Hall 14 council president Jonathan Sua, 25, said this was the first time he had heard of such an incident here.
Sua, a third-year Accountancy student, said: “This is not tolerated in our hall. Recently, there have been cases in schools and I’m afraid people will feel it’s just another case and may talk about it only for a day.”
“It may give the impression to the perpetrator or people curious to try such acts that they can get away with it. I think people will be more vigilant and careful now that this has happened.”
He added that the hall student council will discuss with the Hall 14 office on measures to deter such incidents from reoccurring.
An NTU spokesman said: “We are providing all necessary pastoral care and assistance to the students concerned.”
“The university takes a very serious view of any criminal conduct. Any student who is found guilty will be subject to disciplinary action, which may include suspension or expulsion from the university.”
On Thursday, the police told news organisation TODAY Online that they were alerted to the case at 4pm on Wednesday, and that a 20-year-old man is assisting with investigations.
[…] The alleged incident involves a resident who is accused of holding a phone camera over his neighbour’s cubicle door while the latter was naked in the shower. […]