MUAR: A 20-year-old medical student was today fined RM5,000 by the Sessions Court here for recording videos of children in a church bathroom.
Desmond Tan Chee Yong was charged under Section 10 of the Sexual Offences Against Children Act 2017, which provides for a jail term of up to five years, a fine of RM10,000, or both.
The private university student was accused of recording the children on the evening of June 29 at a church here.
He pleaded guilty to the charge.
Judge Abu Bakar Manat asked the defendant to reflect on the gravity of his actions.
"How would you feel if it was you in the video?"
Abu Bakar also ordered Tan to delete all the videos and images he had recorded and to personally apologise to the victims.
The court was told that Tan, the elder of two siblings, had hidden a mobile phone inside an angpow packet that was placed in the third-floor bathroom.
The camera was activated.
On the day of the incident, a child noticed the packet and found the device inside it.
The discovery was immediately reported to the church management, which called the police.
Police said the recordings on the phone were of nine individuals — five children and four adults --- in the bathroom.
Deputy public prosecutor Danial Munir called for an appropriate sentence, stressing that the victims were acquaintances of the accused.
The court fined Tan RM5,000, in default three months in jail.
Tan also pleaded guilty to a separate charge under Section 292 of the Penal Code of possessing obscene or indecent images.
The next hearing is scheduled for Aug 27.