Teacher jailed for nude pics from changing room

A secondary school male teacher has been sentenced to 14 days in prison for taking clandestine nude photos of a man in a changing room at Kwun Tong swimming pool.

Wong Chi-wai, 43, pleaded not guilty to a count of committing an act outraging public decency when appearing before Kwun Tong magistrate Lau Suk-han.

"The defendant was not mentally unstable, but he had low stress tolerance and a voyeuristic fetish," Lau remarked. And a report on him "indicated he has a medium to high chance of recidivism."

Lau also said Wong was not fully aware of his problems, that he had not received medical treatment in the past, and he noted that Wong insisted he was innocent.

As there were no mitigating factors and the case was not suitable for probation, Lau said, he was sentencing Wong to imprisonment.

Wong was said to have taken nude photographs of the man identified in court as X at the swimming pool on July 26.

X had gone to the pool with his two sons that day and went to the showers later. But because he needed to take care of his eldest son X did not close the shower curtain.

He saw Wong looking at him from time to time, and after showering X went to a nearby bench to dry off with a towel. Then he saw Wong approaching him with his phone's three camera lenses open.

Upon seeing this, X went up and asked whether the defendant was secretly filming him. Wong stammered but refused to delete any photos.

Leisure and Cultural Services staff at the pool then called police.

The defense questioned the involuntary taking of police statements in the trial, and said officers had intimidated him into handing over the password to unlock the phone.

The magistrate said that while some of the officers were evasive the defendant had been uncooperative at the beginning and could no longer be trusted to continue the conversation. So their testimonies would not be admitted in their entirety.

Wong was also illogical and contradictory in speaking in his defense, Lau said.

Lau then ruled that the prosecution had proved beyond reasonable doubt that Wong had secretly taken photographs and convicted him.