Sex offenders who lift or film skirts apparently do it in train and subway stations because of the large number of people and the presence of stairs and elevators which help them obtain a better vantage point to see their targets.
A few days after a Hong Kong magistrate sentenced a serial male sex offender to three months in jail for lifting the skirt of a female flight attendant at the Admiralty MRT station’s Tsuen Wan Lin platform, on Sunday, a man was caught secretly filming the skirts of women at a Shanghai subway station, reported What's on Weibo.
The scene of the crime was People’s Square station’s Line 1, reported SMG News. Besides being apprehended, the suspect was berated in public by a subway official who is heard shouting in Chinese: “You are really a disgrace, you know that? Shanghai is ruled by law. What on earth are you doing that?”
The man even demanded that the official return his confiscated recording device, but the official said it would be used as evidence against the man. The man secretly hid the phone in a bag.
But the official urged commuters to film their confrontation and public shaming and to post the video in Weibo.
Although netizens agreed with the official confronting the suspect, they disagreed with his hitting the man on the face which triggered a debate online. However, others believe what the official did was insufficient to shame the suspect.
Because of the prevalence of men secretly filming under women’s skirts, social media users warn female Chinese commuters during summer to be extra careful if they wear skirts and use public transport, particularly its stairs and escalators since all it needs to secretly video is a smartphone.
But it is not a problem exclusive to China. Daily Mail reported in May that a sex pervert was caught filming up women’s skirts on escalators in London Underground in UK. When questioned by authorities, 43-year-old Darren Lessman, who was caught two times, blamed his behavior on his sexual frustrations because his wife is recovering from breast cancer which deprived him of sex.