SINGAPORE: Two women were charged in court on Friday (Feb 21) for deleting a video clip and reformatting a closed-circuit television (CCTV) system that captured the footage of a man molesting a female toddler in a preschool.
Details of the two women, including their names and ages, were redacted from court documents.
A gag order was imposed on their identities along with the location of the alleged offence to protect the victim, who was around two years old at the time.
Both women received three charges each – two for obstruction of justice and one for intentionally omitting to give any information about the molest, even though they were legally bound to do so.
At least one of them seems to have held a high-ranking staff position at the preschool.
This woman allegedly conspired with her co-accused to delete a video clip that captured the man’s alleged offence from a WhatsApp chat between Nov 16 and Nov 17, 2023, when she was overseas.
She is also accused of intentionally omitting to give any information about the molest on Nov 23, 2023 at about 2pm while at the preschool.
Three days later, this woman allegedly conspired with the co-accused and one other person to reformat a closed-circuit television system which contained footage of the alleged molest.
Her co-accused faces three mirror charges.
This woman allegedly deleted a video clip capturing the offence in her WhatsApp chat with the co-accused, omitted to provide information concerning the alleged offence, and reformatted the CCTV system that contained the molest footage.
No indication of plea was taken from either woman. Both their cases will return to court for a further mention on Mar 21.
As for the man accused of molest, an offender with the same name was found in the court system. This accused faces eight counts of outraging the modesty of a person under 14.
He is due to plead guilty on Mar 18, according to the court system.
If convicted of intentionally omitting to give information concerning an offence one is legally bound to give, an offender may be jailed up to six months, fined, or both.
For obstructing the course of justice, a person may be jailed up to seven years, fined, or both.
