Peeping Tom 'sought to escape wife's nagging'
A 76-year-old peeping Tom who took video recordings of women showering, changing and urinating did so as a form of escape from his nagging wife, a court heard yesterday.
The explanation was given after Mok Kong pleaded guilty to two counts of committing an act outraging public decency.
Eastern Court heard he was arrested on July 3 after climbing on the rooftop of a female public changing room on St Stephen's Beach, Stanley, to videotape a woman in a swimsuit as she was about to undress.
Magistrate Ian Candy said Mok had been caught when a man entered the male changing room on the beach and caught sight of a hand holding a video camera near the ceiling of the female shower room next door. He shouted to the woman inside not to take off her clothes.
Police officers called to the scene found Mok sitting on the rooftop with a video camera and battery in his shoulder bag.
A tape containing footage of a woman taking a shower was found on the rooftop by a cleaning worker two days later.
Police who searched Mok's flat found a briefcase with 20 videotapes, one of which contained scenes of women urinating in a public toilet. He admitted they had been captured in the women's toilet at Wan Chai Market.
Barrister Francis Yip Kin-ming said his client was henpecked by his 71-year-old wife.
'He found it hard to stay at home and he committed the offences out of curiosity,' he said, adding that Mok had been suffering from hypertension and high blood pressure for 10 years.
Mr Candy said the offences were serious. A jail term would be appropriate but he would take into consideration Mok's age, probation and psychiatric reports. He had adjourned sentencing to October 6 and remanded Mok in a custodial hospital ward.
