Dental photographer charged after taking voyeuristic photos of female patients’ chests over three-year period
A photographer at the National Dental Centre Singapore (NDCS) has admitted to secretly taking over 600 voyeuristic chest photos of his patients over a three-year period, despite being authorised only to shoot images of their jaws.
According to CNA, the 29-year-old Singaporean, Elgin Ng, built a private catalogue of images involving 25 female patients, some as young as 13.
Ng pleaded guilty on 18 Nov to nine charges, including voyeurism, distributing voyeuristic images, and unauthorised computer access.
Another 21 charges will be taken into consideration during sentencing.
Source: HealthcareAsia
Photographer was supposed to shoot only jaws, with strict modesty rules
Ng’s role at NDCS was to photograph the teeth and jaws of patients preparing for surgery.
Requests were logged in the centre’s electronic records system, and he was required to:
Photograph only the facial and jaw region
Provide all patients with a blue modesty board to cover their chest
Ensure a female staff member was present for female patients, or keep the curtains open if none were available
Targeted patients he ‘found attractive’
Between June 2021 and May 2024, Ng repeatedly breached protocol when no female colleague was around.
He would search the system for female patients he found “attractive” or who were “wearing clothing with cleavage”, take required jaw photos, then secretly capture additional chest shots from above and below.
Source: Minerva Studio on Canva, for illustrative purposes only
He would also lie to patients who were not scheduled for photos, claiming their dentist needed images.
When he took his victims’ photos, he would withhold the blue modesty board and close the curtains and position the cameras deliberately to obtain prohibited angles.
He then transferred the images to his personal thumb drive.
Ng later accessed NDCS’s internal system to download the victims’ face photos, matching them to his voyeuristic shots. He even saved some victims’ contact details “for personal consumption” or to call them in for additional sessions.
His entire collection was meticulously organised into folders labelled with victims’ names, each containing both face and chest photos.
He compiled over 600 images in total.
Ng also sent some photos to a friend on Telegram on at least two occasions.
Caught after 18-year-old victim questioned repeated photo sessions
The scheme unravelled when one victim — an 18-year-old patient with 31 images in Ng’s collection — reported that she had been called back for multiple photography sessions despite her doctor making no such request.
NDCS launched an inquiry in May 2024, but Ng resigned before the sessions and did not attend.
The centre then filed a police report.
Judge says photographer ‘picked his victims’
The prosecution is seeking at least 29 months’ imprisonment, arguing Ng abused his position in the public healthcare system for “his own perverse desires”.
The defence countered that Ng had a previously clean record and that, “against thousands of patients”, his number of victims was comparatively low.
The judge rejected this, noting that Ng deliberately selected his victims.
Sentencing has been adjourned to December.
Also read: S’porean man found with over 1,200 photos & videos of child abuse, gets 22 months’ jail
S’porean man found with over 1,200 photos & videos of child abuse, gets 22 months’ jail
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Featured image adapted from HealthCareAsia and MustShareNews.
