A local man was arrested on Sunday for taking photographs of a male in the men’s toilet of a hotel in Cotai, Public Security Police (PSP) spokesman Wong Wai Chon said at a regular press conference yesterday.
The 31-year-old local suspect surnamed Cheong, who is single, works as an insurance salesman.
According to Wong, a security guard of the hotel reported to the police on Sunday that a male guest saw a Peeping Tom in the men’s toilet on that day, using his smartphone to surreptitiously take photos of him, while he was using the bathroom. The victim, who is in his thirties, shouted at the suspect who was in a cubicle next to his, so the Peeping Tom immediately ran out of the toilet. The victim chased after the suspect and stopped him. The security guard assisted the victim in reporting the case to the police.
According to Wong, PSP officers quickly arrived at the scene and arrested Cheong who admitted to secretly taking photos of the victim, even though he had deleted the photos from his smartphone soon after taking them.
PSP officers later found 24 photos of male genitals and two similar videos on a tablet computer at Cheong’s home in Avenida do Hipódromo. Cheong confessed that he had started to secretly take photographs in men’s toilets a year ago and claimed that the photos stored in his computer were screenshots from naked chats with other men.
Cheong was transferred to the Public Prosecutions Office (MP) yesterday morning, facing an invasion of privacy charge, Wong said.
According to Article 186 of the Macau Penal Code, violating a person’s privacy is punishable by up to two years behind bars, or a fine.
On January 10, the police arrested a local man who on the previous day had entered a women’s toilet in a restaurant where he peeped at a female in her twenties when she was using the bathroom.
This undated handout photo provided by the Public Security Police (PSP) yesterday shows two PSP officers escorting the suspected Peeping Tom to a police station in Taipa.
