Blind man caught filming up victim’s skirt on escalator
Offender prosecuted after Bullring incident
APARTIALLY blind pervert was busted for ‘upskirting’ in Birmingham’s Bullring after a security guard confronted him and asked to check his phone.
A woman reported Boon Kuan Tan for acting suspiciously whilst standing behind her on the escalator in Birmingham’s flagship shopping centre.
A security guard subsequently tracked him down and saw that his camera app was open.
He then saw the sick video he had taken. It initially pointed to the floor before angling underneath the victim’s dress.
Tan, aged 50, was arrested and denied wrong-doing for months.
But minutes before he was due to stand trial at Birmingham Magistrates’ Court he confessed, and pleaded guilty to a charge of recording an image under clothing to observe another without consent.
Bullring CCTV footage had captured him following females in the centre for around 11 minutes beforehand.
Tan, of no fixed address, was sentenced to 18 weeks jail suspended for 12 months.
The incident occurred on September 25 last year. Prosecutor John Cardiff said: “Bullring footage shows him within the busy shopping centre.
“To be frank, he seems to be endlessly walking around and his phone is in his hand.
“He then joins the bottom of the escalator then changes his mind. There’s lots of people moving around then this complainant with their friend goes onto the escalator and he goes immediately behind her.”
The court heard the victim flagged down the security officer and reported the incident saying: “He was right behind me and acting suspiciously. I saw his phone was in his hand and it made me think he was taking pictures of me.”
In a statement the guard confirmed he pursued Tan down the escalator ‘keeping some distance’.
He said: “I noticed he had his phone in his hand and the camera was on. I asked him what he was doing in the centre and he replied ‘just visiting’.
“Then I asked him to show me his phone. When he did so the camera app was open and visible.
“I asked him to show me his photos. At this point he showed me the video he had taken. The video showed the camera pointing down to the floor and him walking onto the escalator then briefly shows the back of the females that approached me.
“The camera then points down to the bottom of her dress and then goes underneath it and points upwards towards the female’s genitalia for a few seconds. Then the video stops. It lasted about 20 seconds.
“I told him this kind of thing is unacceptable. He replied that it was an accident.”
Numann Haque, defending, said Tan was a father of three who had been separated from his family in Malaysia since he came to the UK in 2006.
The solicitor told the court his client’s eyesight has deteriorated from glaucoma and he is now completely blind in one eye while he can ‘only see shadows’ in the other.