SINGAPORE – A former doctor at the Singapore General Hospital (SGH), who recorded multiple videos of men using urinals, was sentenced on Monday (April 6) to a year’s mandatory treatment order.
This means Indonesian national Jerry Christian Nagaputra, 31, has to undergo treatment for his mental condition in lieu of jail time.
Defence lawyer Lee Teck Leng had earlier told a district court that his client had “adjustment disorder with depressed and anxious moods”.
Mr Lee added: “(He) resorted to filming men urinating as a dysfunctional method of coping with his adjustment disorder resulting from his multiple stressors.”
The Institute of Mental Health said on its website that an adjustment disorder is “a short-term maladaptive response to a stressor”, resulting in the development of emotional and/or behavioural symptoms.
Nagaputra pleaded guilty on March 9 to three charges under the Films Act after he recorded multiple videos of men using urinals in February last year.
Twenty other similar charges were taken into consideration during sentencing.
He no longer worked for MOH Holdings, which is the holding firm of Singapore’s public healthcare clusters, as of Oct 25 last year.
His name was also not on the list of registered healthcare professionals in Singapore on Monday.
On Feb 9 last year, the Singapore permanent resident went to a men’s toilet it Ngee Ann City shopping mall and filmed a man who was using a urinal.
Two days later, Nagaputra went to a men’s toilet at Bugis Junction shopping centre and stood beside a 27-year-old man at a urinal.
Nagaputra had a mobile phone in his left hand, with its camera facing the man’s private parts.
The man later confronted Nagaputra, who claimed that he had only photographs of food on the device.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Foo Shi Hao had told District Judge May Mesenas: “However, while the accused was scrolling through his photographs, the complainant noticed an image of a urinal… and requested to check the phone himself. The accused complied.”
The man then found videos of men urinating.
Nagaputra tried to delete the films and run away but was stopped by the man and other passers-by, said DPP Foo.
The man alerted the police soon after.
For each charge under the Films Act, Nagaputra could have been jailed for up to two years and fined up to $40,000.