Jail for man, 67, who repeatedly stole woman's underwear, then wrote letters and sent her pictures of him wearing her panties
SINGAPORE — After repeatedly stealing a woman's undergarments from a clothes rack, a 67-year-old man left the woman a letter on the rack one day.
In it, he made various lewd remarks about the woman's body before telling her that he would show her pictures of him wearing her underwear.
Staying true to his words, he delivered to her those photos on two occasions.
On Wednesday (Sept 18), Tham Weng Kee pleaded guilty to two charges of insulting a person's modesty and one of distributing an obscene picture. He was sentenced to nine weeks' jail.
Six charges of theft and one more of distributing an obscene picture were taken into consideration during sentencing.
The victim's name and incident location cannot be disclosed due to a court order.
The court heard that the woman would hang laundry on a clothes rack placed at the corridor outside her flat in a housing block.
Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Shaun Lim said in court documents that sometime last year, Tham took several pieces of underwear from the rack.
However, the woman did not think anything of it, he added without elaborating why.
The stolen items included a swimsuit, five pairs of underwear and a bra that Tham took between January and March 2023. These were part of a charge that was taken into consideration for his offences.
On Feb 8 this year, Tham wrote a letter to the woman and attached it to the clothes rack.
In the letter, he admitted to stealing her underwear and made various lewd remarks regarding her private parts.
He then claimed to have engaged in obscene acts while wearing her underwear, before asking her several offensive questions.
"The accused ended by telling the victim that he would show her pictures of him wearing her underwear," DPP Lim said.
A few days later on Feb 12, Tham included those pictures in a second letter.
They were two photographs of himself wearing her underwear where his genitals were visible.
He wrote in this second letter that he wore the woman's underwear to work, among other things.
He also asked her to continue leaving her underwear outside for him.
Later that month on Feb 21, Tham left three photographs of himself wearing the woman's underwear. Similarly, his genitals were visible in the photographs.
DPP Lim said that the woman felt disgusted by the letters and photographs, but did not file a police report because she felt "shy and embarrassed".
"It was only after the accused repeatedly stole more of her underwear that she finally agreed to make a police report on Feb 23, 2024," he added.
Describing the letters as "blatantly and graphically vulgar", DPP Lim sought a sentence of 10 to 13 weeks' jail.
"Furthermore, as opposed to a one-off oral remark, the vulgar words were printed as a letter and left not only for the victim, but also for all and sundry who passed along the corridor to see," he added. It is not known if the letters were in envelopes or not.
DPP Lim also said that Tham had targeted the victim's home over a prolonged period time, escalating his actions from stealing underwear to leaving obscene letters.
Tham's actions had also distressed the victim, who felt embarrassed.
In mitigation, defence lawyer Rohit Kumar Singh of Regal Law LLC said that Tham's propensity to reoffend is low.
He asked for a sentence of eight to 10 weeks' jail, noting that Tham has attended 19 sessions of counselling since he was arrested and is addressing triggers that "forced him" to do what he did.
Mr Rohit added that Tham has strong family support and hopes to serve his sentence, gain employment and contribute back to his family.
Tham personally addressed the court and apologised. He said that he brought shame to the victim and his family, and is remorseful of his actions.
District Judge Eddy Tham said that he could sense Tham Weng Kee's remorse, but the man had committed a "grave act that (placed) a lot of stress on the victim".
Anyone found guilty of insulting a person's modesty could be jailed for up to a year or fined, or both.
The maximum penalty for distributing an obscene picture is a jail term of a year or a fine, or both.
