Doctor jailed for filming patients on toilet

26 Nov, 2014 14:52 / Updated 10 years ago

​A South London doctor who took secret video footage of patients and colleagues on the toilet has been jailed for eight years.

Hearing specialist Lam Hoe Yeoh was sentenced at Croydon Crown Court after it was discovered that he had secretly hoarded 1,100 indecent images and videos of his patients at his home.

The 62-year-old man admitted to seven counts of voyeurism, six counts of taking an indecent photograph of a child and one count of possessing extreme pornography.

Yeoh was sentenced to eight years, five of which he will serve in prison before being released on license.

While only 30 victims could be identified on camera, one woman was reportedly filmed 300 times.

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Recorder Warwick Mackinnon called the disgraced doctor “nefarious and despicable.

He told the court Yeoh’s behavior posed a significant threat to the public.

The sheer scale, the gravity, the ingrained and compulsive behavior demonstrated by the offences is significantly important. You are considered a high risk to the public.

“[Had you not been caught], I have no doubt that this prolific offending on a hitherto unprecedented scale would have continued,” he added.

The Malaysian doctor, known by the English name Robin, was caught after a small camera he fixed to a communal toilet at St Anthony’s Hospital in Cheam was discovered.

Staff at the hospital found images on the camera of both themselves and patients at the center using the toilet facilities.

The camera also yielded footage of Yeoh installing the camera.

He was arrested in April 2014.

Police called Yeoh “one of the most prolific non-contact offenders ever investigated.

Following a search of his property in Banstead, police uncovered images and footage of victims as young as three amongst a stash of 1,100 files.

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Prosecutor Peter Clement called his operation “sophisticated, organized, planned and long-running,” and said the doctor had “grossly abused” the trust placed in him by his patients and colleagues.

“The [voyeurism] offending was vast and beyond any previously investigated by the Met [Police]. His intention was sinister, indecent and criminal,” he added.

The long-running operation to collect footage was run by Yeoh in a number of locations across the UK, including medical centers in Nottingham, Exeter and Sutton, as well as central London and Thames Ditton.

He used various devices to capture the images, such as pen drives and camera watches.