By Chong Chee Kin March 10, 2006 The Straits Times SINGAPORE
CLIFFORD Wong Wai Lit, who shocked his neighbours in Woodlands Drive earlier this year by repeatedly appearing naked at his bedroom window, escaped a jail term yesterday, walking away with a $6,500 fine.
Between late December last year and early January this year, neighbours complained that the 29-year-old salesman appeared naked at his window nine times, always in the morning, with the lights on and the curtains open.
On three occasions, he was also seen touching himself.
The incidents occurred shortly after he moved into the flat with his wife.
Yesterday, the court heard how three police officers had visited the home of a 26-year-old woman at about 6am on Jan 11 this year, about a week after she had filed a complaint about Wong.
The officers showed up at her Woodlands Drive apartment and placed themselves by her living room window to keep watch on Wong's ninth-floor flat in the opposite block.
At 6.40am, Wong appeared naked at his bedroom window and looked out before moving away again.
He reappeared shortly after and touched himself, then grabbed some tissue paper from a box and moved out of sight.
About 40 minutes later, the officers went to his flat and arrested him.
Wong was convicted under the Miscellaneous Offences (Public Order and Nuisance) Act, after he admitted exposing himself to public view.
His lawyer, Mr S.S. Dhillon, convinced Magistrate May Mesenas not to jail him.
Wong was not an exhibitionist, Mr Dhillon said, arguing that his morning appearances had lasted only a short time.
'The only way someone could see inside the bedroom is if the person makes a deliberate attempt with plenty of effort to look into the window,' he said.
He also pointed out that Wong had appeared naked only early in the morning on weekdays.
'This cannot be the mindset of an exhibitionist. To an exhibitionist, there would be more people able to see him in the nude on weekends. Wouldn't this be better for him?' he said.
Wong and his wife declined to comment when approached by reporters outside the courtroom after the hearing.
The Act under which Wong was convicted was amended in 1996 to expand the scope of 'public nuisances' to cover the use of abusive language and appearing nude in public.
Before that law was amended, it was not an offence for a person to appear naked in his own home, even if he was in public view.
Wong could have been jailed for a maximum of three months on each of the five charges brought against him.
