The Taiwan Hsinchu District Court has sentenced a department store counter clerk to four months in prison — belated justice for the woman he victimised, and a warning to the offender in the form of an actual custodial sentence.

• A counter clerk surnamed Wu was on duty at the Far Eastern Big City Shopping Mall in Hsinchu last September when he crouched outside a fitting room and used two mobile phones to film a female customer changing from beneath the curtain.
• The woman noticed at the time and called the police, who seized the two phones on arrival and referred the case to the district prosecutors' office.
• The court sentenced him to four months under the Criminal Code's offence of recording another person's sexual images without cause, convertible to a fine of about NT$120,000.
• Although the defendant admitted the offence and met some of the conditions for probation, the court found it would be unfair to grant probation while he had yet to reach a settlement with the victim, and refused it.
• Both phones were confiscated, including one that was a shared phone belonging to the store.

Outlook: The case can still be appealed, and if the two sides reach a settlement, whether the second-instance court grants probation will be the key question.