Filipino bartender in HK imprisoned for ‘loitering’ inside female toilet

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A Filipino bartender in Hong Kong was sentenced to six months in prison after admitting to peeping inside a female toilet twice.

The man, identified only as 43-year-old Eduardo P., pleaded guilty to two charges of “loitering causing concern” before Eastern Magistrate Peter Law, as per Hong Kong News on March 27. Eduardo is a Hong Kong resident and has a wife and a daughter.

“You have two charges that happened on different dates and are totally unrelated incidents,” Judge Law was quoted as saying. “So, the sentence for charge one and charge two to be served consecutively so your total sentence is six months.”

The incidents happened on two separate occasions last Feb. 16 and 17. Eduardo entered the female toilet on the basement floor of Manly Plaza in Quarry Bay, as per the police complaint, and loitered there.

“You loitered in the said place… and your presence there alone caused (the complainant) reasonably to be concerned for her safety or well-being,” the complaint said.

A woman apparently saw Eduardo exiting the toilet on February 16. When asked what he was doing inside, Eduardo said nothing and ran away instead. He returned again the following day and was reported to the police.

Eduardo has five previous criminal cases, as per the report, and three of his cases were similar to the present one. He was arrested in Repulse Bay in July 2015 after four teenage girls complained he was peeping inside the female changing room. In November 2015, Eduardo was accused of loitering and peering inside a female toilet in Kowloon City, but his case was junked because witnesses could not identify him. A taxi driver also saw him leaving a female toilet on the beach and stopped him when he attempted to flee.

Eduardo’s lawyer has asked for leniency, citing his drinking problem and his being jailed in the past.

“Alcohol is a problem given his job as a bartender in the same restaurant for the last five years,” the lawyer said in the report. “Being locked up seems to have given him a lesson. He understands that he has broken the law.”  Cody Cepeda /ra

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