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A teacher and a school social worker were among the eight arrested by Hong Kong police on Monday for allegedly taking upskirt images and videos of women and selling or sharing them online. Officers also seized 12 mobile phones, two laptops and four converted pinhole cameras in raids conducted on Monday. The eight men, aged 18 to 41, were arrested for “aiding and abetting to publicise intimate images without consent” and “unlawful recording of intimate parts”. Senior Inspector Yu Sea-ki, of the force’s cyber security and technology crime bureau, said: “Of the eight men, one reported to be a teacher, another a school social worker. The others include a clerk and a construction site worker.” An initial police investigation showed the suspects were subscribers of an online platform that shared and put upskirt and downblouse images of women for sale. The online platform was already smashed by police in an operation in August. Ten people were arrested in the August operation, including a married couple who were believed to be the masterminds of the platform. Yu said: “We followed up on the investigation and eventually pinned down the eight men and took action to arrest them at various locations across the city. “On one of the men, we found four converted pinhole cameras and his mobile phone also stored a lot of upskirt clippings. He was thus also arrested for suspected unlawful recording of intimate parts.” Yu condemned the acts of voyeurism and warned: “It is like a production chain. Some people at first just subscribe to such online platforms to watch the pictures and videos. But later they also take part in taking those pictures and submitting to the platforms. “This could also amount to aiding and abetting others to publicise intimate images.” Usually, providers of the upskirt images could receive rewards from the platforms, according to police. Subscribers could also purchase and download the photos and videos individually. Yu said police would spare no effort to crack down on voyeurism-related offences. In Hong Kong, the maximum penalty for such offences is five years in jail.
