Two lauded for alerting police to upskirt offences

Five-year-old Mohd Ashqil, with his father Yusman Yusoff behind him, greeting Public Transport Security Command Commander Koh Wei Keong at the award ceremony yesterday. Mr Yusman and Mr Yap Zuo Peng (left) both received the Public Spiritedness Award
Five-year-old Mohd Ashqil, with his father Yusman Yusoff behind him, greeting Public Transport Security Command Commander Koh Wei Keong at the award ceremony yesterday. Mr Yusman and Mr Yap Zuo Peng (left) both received the Public Spiritedness Award for their efforts. ST PHOTO: KELVIN CHNG

They acted on their instincts and prevented more women from having their privacy violated.

For their vigilance, Mr Yusman Yusoff, 41, and Mr Yap Zuo Peng, 27, received the Public Spiritedness Award by the Singapore Police Force yesterday.

Both of them had helped the police detain two men suspected of taking photos up the skirts of women in separate cases.

On Oct 3, Mr Yap, who sells mobile phone accessories, was walking up an escalator at Hougang MRT station at around 9pm, when he noticed a man holding a mobile phone underneath the skirt of the woman in front of him.

Without hesitation, he grabbed the man's hand. "I asked him what he was doing and he denied doing anything," recalled Mr Yap, who then took the man's phone away and shouted to the woman.

After he explained what he had seen, she checked the man's phone and discovered four upskirt photos. "I asked her if she was okay, and she said it was very creepy knowing that someone had taken those photos of her," Mr Yap added.

The 21-year-old man was later arrested by the police.

In another incident, Mr Yusman was at the linkway between Toa Payoh MRT station and the bus interchange when he saw a man tailing a woman on Sept 19. Sensing something amiss, Mr Yusman, a courier, saw the man holding a mobile phone under the woman's skirt at an angle.

He followed the man, but eventually lost sight of him, and notified police officers at the Public Transport Security Command. With Mr Yusman's help, the officers later identified the 23-year-old suspect and arrested him.

Assistant Commissioner of Police Koh Wei Keong, who is Commander of the Public Transport Security Command, said their willingness to step forward to assist the victims, which led to the suspects' arrest, went a long way to help deter crime on the public transport network.

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A version of this article appeared in the print edition of The Straits Times on October 18, 2018, with the headline Two lauded for alerting police to upskirt offences. Subscribe