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A Vancouver Island man has pleaded guilty in what police are calling the “most prolific case of voyeurism ever prosecuted in Canada.”
The Saanich Police Department said investigators identified at least 652 women and girls as victims.
In a media release, Saanich police said Yin Yeung Derek Chan, 39, was in court for sentencing on Thursday after pleading guilty to “several” voyeurism-related charges.
Those charges include surreptitiously recording people in a place where they reasonably expect privacy, observing and recording for a sexual purpose, making child pornography, and publishing a recording that was obtained in the commission of a crime.
Police said they began investigating in January 2024 after discovering someone was uploading voyeuristic photos and videos to social media from somewhere in Saanich.
That led police to Chan, who had previously been convicted for voyeurism when he was caught filming a woman in a Victoria-area mall change room.
Police say Yin Yeung Derek Chan has pleaded guilty to multiple voyeurism-related charges. Chan was due in a Victoria, B.C., court for a sentencing hearing on Thursday. (Michael McArthur/CBC)
Police said they arrested Chan at his home in Saanich in April 2024, where they seized more than 28 hours of video and thousands of images captured between April 2017 and November 2023.
The material featured women and girls surreptitiously recorded at businesses, beaches, and in some cases through the windows of private residences, police said.
Police also discovered that images of the victims were posted online, with many viewed on websites around the world. Formal requests were made to remove those images, police said.
Chan was released with conditions after his initial arrest, but was re-arrested in January 2025 and has remained in custody since then.
Police identified and contacted 40 of the victims, some of whom provided victim impact statements.
Anyone who believes they may be one of the hundreds of unidentified victims in the case is asked to contact police at file950@saanichpolice.ca.