London - A top doctor was unmasked on Tuesday as a depraved voyeur who secretly filmed more than 1 000 victims across the country.
NHS consultant Dr Lam Hoe Yeoh, 62, spent three years capturing patients, colleagues, friends and even children as young as three in intimate moments.
The world-renowned hearing specialist used tiny cameras hidden in lavatories to feed his obsession.
He installed them at NHS and private hospitals across Britain, his offices, the bathrooms at his £750 000 detached home in Banstead, Surrey, and even trains as he travelled to appointments.
But Yeoh, who boasted to friends that Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon actress Michelle Yeoh was his half-sister, was caught red-handed when one of the devices fell off a toilet at a Surrey hospital and a colleague found it.
Police discovered Yeoh had inadvertently filmed himself installing it and searches of his offices and home revealed he had amassed a collection of footage.
Investigators said it would take at least two years to examine the huge hoard of digital material on 17 computers, laptops, external hard-drives and memory sticks.
In a sinister twist, the doctor created compilations of his colleagues using the toilets and carefully labelled them with their names, actions and the date.
He also edited together footage of him interviewing patients with intimate shots from the toilet, including in some cases images shot from multiple cameras. One of his closest colleagues was unwittingly filmed more than 300 times.
On Tuesday, the weeping father of three clutched a Bible and buried his head in his hands as he was warned he faces a “significant” jail sentence.
Prosecutor Peter Clement said: “This was a sophisticated, organised, planned and long-running campaign of voyeurism, the scale of which was vast.
“It was beyond anything previously encountered by the Metropolitan Police. His voyeurism targeted colleagues, friends, patients and patients’ children, male and female. His intention was sinister, indecent and criminal.
“He grossly abused the very high degree of trust placed in him as a consultant physician as well as a friend and colleague.”
Yeoh worked as a consultant vestibular physician, specialising in hearing complaints such as tinnitus, vertigo and dizziness, after coming to Britain from Malaysia aged 25.
He rose through the ranks to become an honorary senior lecturer, expert High Court witness and director of two companies.
His two daughters attend Cambridge University and the family were known to neighbours as respected professionals and devout Christians.
But his career came crashing down when a camera was found in a communal toilet at the privately run St Anthony’s Hospital, in Cheam, Surrey, on April 14.
When police confronted Yeoh, he said: “Will I go to jail? I was so stupid, don’t tell my family. It’s not serious – I can’t go to jail.”
They found 23 covert cameras, which were disguised as computer memory sticks, pens and watches, including three hidden in hearing aid boxes in his car. A memory stick he was carrying on a lanyard around his neck when he was arrested carried a short film entitled “Cardiff train teenager”.
Computer experts found that Yeoh had used the cameras to film at medical facilities including the private Portland Hospital, in Central London, St Helier Hospital and clinics in Exeter, Nottingham, Sutton, and Thames Ditton, Surrey.
Hours of footage was also captured on trains, including a girl, believed to be just three years old. Other victims included friends and colleagues who were invited to his home for social events.
Police were able to identify only 32 victims, many of them staff at St Anthony’s Hospital. There are at least a further 1 084 unknown victims.
Yeoh gave detailed labels to the recordings, which included phrases such as “sweet young teen” and “thin young blonde, Exeter”.
In mitigation, Yeoh’s barrister said he was an obsessive “collector” who recorded so much material he was unable to view it all.
Yeoh admitted seven counts of voyeurism, six charges of making an indecent image of a child and one of possessing extreme pornography. He will be sentenced on Wednesday.
Michelle Yeoh, 52, who also starred in the Bond film Tomorrow Never Dies, has 15 half-brothers and sisters. Her spokesman was not available for comment on Tuesday.
Daily Mail