A 61-year-old Singapore permanent resident has been sentenced to three weeks in jail after secretly entering his female tenant’s bedroom twice while she was overseas and performing lewd acts involving her underwear.
The Filipino landlord was caught on a surveillance camera that the tenant had installed in her room after becoming uncomfortable with his earlier behaviour. A court gag order prevents the publication of information that could identify the victim.
Tenant Installed CCTV Before Leaving Singapore
The woman, a 47-year-old Filipino national, was renting a room in a Housing Board flat in central Singapore where the landlord lived with his wife and daughter.
According to court information reported by Shin Min Daily News and cited by multiple Singapore news outlets, the tenant had previously felt uneasy about some of the landlord’s behaviour. Before leaving Singapore for her home country, she decided to install a surveillance camera underneath her bed.
She was overseas from July 22 to Aug 19, 2024.
The camera would eventually provide evidence of what happened inside her room while she was away.
Landlord Used Spare Key to Enter Room
On Aug 3, at about 5.53pm, the landlord used a master key to unlock the tenant’s bedroom without her permission.
He entered the room and took a set of underwear from her wardrobe before committing a lewd act.
The incident was captured by the camera.
The tenant later viewed the footage remotely and was shocked by what she saw. The following day, she asked a colleague to enter her room and reposition the camera from underneath the bed onto a table, according to reports citing the court documents.
The change in camera position did not prevent a second incident from being recorded.
Second Incident Caught on Camera
About two weeks later, on Aug 17, the landlord entered the tenant’s room again.
Reports said he had been watching pornographic material before entering the room. He then performed another lewd act involving the tenant’s underwear, with the surveillance camera again recording his actions.
The second incident reinforced the tenant’s concerns about her safety and privacy inside the home she had been renting.
The incidents took place while the tenant was out of the country, meaning she was not present when the landlord entered her private room.
Tenant Moved Out and Reported the Incidents
After returning to Singapore on Aug 19, the tenant began looking for another place to live.
She eventually moved out of the flat on Sept 20, 2024. The following day, she made a police report about what had happened, according to reports citing the case details.
The landlord faced five charges, including offences involving trespass, insulting the victim’s modesty and mischief. He pleaded guilty to two charges, while the remaining charges were taken into consideration when the court determined his sentence.
He was sentenced to three weeks’ imprisonment.
Court Protects Victim’s Identity
The court imposed a gag order to protect the victim.
As a result, the man’s name cannot be published because doing so could potentially reveal information identifying the woman.
The case highlights the particularly sensitive nature of offences involving a person’s private living space, especially when the offender has access to the premises through a landlord-tenant arrangement.
The tenant had taken the precaution of installing a camera because she already felt uncomfortable about the landlord’s conduct. The footage ultimately documented his unauthorized entries and provided evidence of the incidents.
CCTV Has Played a Role in Similar Singapore Cases
The case is not the first in Singapore in which a hidden or home security camera has exposed inappropriate conduct inside a victim’s private room.
In a separate case reported by CNA in March 2025, a 38-year-old Vietnamese man entered his female flatmate’s bedroom while she was at work and committed several obscene acts involving her underwear and a plush toy. The 29-year-old victim had installed a CCTV camera after noticing that belongings in her room appeared to have been moved. He was sentenced to 10 weeks in jail after pleading guilty to insulting her modesty.
Another Singapore case involved a 67-year-old man who repeatedly stole a woman’s underwear and later sent her photographs of himself wearing the items. He was sentenced to nine weeks in jail in September 2024 after pleading guilty to two counts of insulting a person’s modesty and one count of distributing an obscene picture.
While the circumstances differ, the cases demonstrate how surveillance footage can become important evidence when misconduct occurs inside or around residential properties.
A Serious Breach of Privacy
For tenants, a rented bedroom is still a private space, and access by a landlord does not automatically give permission to enter whenever the tenant is absent.
In this case, the tenant was overseas and had not consented to the landlord entering her room. The use of a key to gain access made the incidents possible without her knowledge.
The CCTV footage eventually revealed what had taken place and allowed the tenant to report the matter to the police after moving out.
The three-week jail sentence brings the case to a close, while the court’s gag order continues to protect the identity of the woman involved.
