A 15-year-old girl, dressed in her school uniform, was unknowingly followed by a stranger at Victoria’s Mayfair Shopping Centre while walking with her mother and brother. Subsequently, a cellphone video captured the voyeur shadowing the family and surreptitiously filming under the girl’s skirt. The girl’s mother, upon being informed by the police that her daughter’s image had been exploited on child pornography websites, faced a difficult decision – whether to disclose this to her daughter or not.
The incident is part of a larger case of voyeurism involving 652 women and children, which authorities claim to be the most extensive reported in Canada. Yin Yeung Derek Chan, the perpetrator, spent six years clandestinely recording victims across communities in southern Vancouver Island, including filming through windows and lurking in shopping centers in downtown Victoria.
Prior to Chan’s arrest in 2024, he was producing over a video daily, uploading the footage and images of victims on social media, adult sites, and a personal website that garnered over a million views before being shut down. Despite being sentenced to four-and-a-half years in prison in May, a significant portion of the illicit content remains accessible online, with only a fraction of the victims identified.
The impact of Chan’s crimes remains shrouded in questions concerning the police investigation and the repercussions on the victims. CBC News conducted extensive research, including reviewing court records, listening to court proceedings, and contacting Chan’s victims.
Victims expressed the lasting trauma caused by Chan’s actions, with one woman stating that watching the video filmed by Chan shattered her sense of security. The victims have reported difficulties in various aspects of life, including maintaining employment, managing mental health issues, and altering their clothing choices due to the trauma inflicted upon them.
Chan, who used his job as an Uber Eats delivery driver to gain access to victims’ homes, has a history of recording women secretly. During the sentencing, he offered apologies to the victims but provided little insight into his repeated offenses. Despite efforts to remove some of the recordings from Chan’s online platforms, challenges persist in taking down all the content.
The impact of Chan’s voyeurism extends beyond the initial violation, with victims experiencing ongoing distress and struggles in their daily lives. The widespread distribution of the recordings online has added to the victims’ trauma, with concerns about the inability to entirely erase the content from the internet. The extensive reach of the case and the profound impact on the victims highlight the urgency for reforms to protect individuals from such heinous violations.