A boutique counter clerk in Hsinchu who secretly filmed a female customer changing in a fitting room has been sentenced by the court — a belated reckoning for the victim, and no room for leniency for the perpetrator.

• While on duty at the Big City Shopping Mall last September, the clerk, surnamed Wu, crouched outside a fitting room and used his mobile phone to film a woman changing from beneath the curtain.
• The Hsinchu District Court sentenced him to four months in prison under the Criminal Code offence of recording another person's sexual images without justification, commutable to a fine of about NT$120,000.
• The court denied probation, reasoning that he had not yet reached a settlement with the victim and that granting probation would not be fair.
• Both mobile phones involved in the case were confiscated, including one that was a shared phone belonging to the store.
• The woman noticed at the scene and called the police, who seized the phone on arrival. Wu admitted the offence throughout.

Outlook: The case can still be appealed, and if the two sides later reach a settlement, probation could still be back on the table.