Photo: Chen Guilin (left) in a screen capture taken off an interview he did with The Straits Times Razor TV in 2009.

Some women may not have known that they were filmed having sex with "Gary Ng", whose real name is Chen Guilin.

But now that his picture has been published, they may soon realise that they could have unintentionally starred in one of Chen's infamous sex videos.

So what legal options do these women have?

Lawyers told The New Paper that the women may be able to sue Chen in a civil suit for causing distress, embarrassment or anxiety but it may be difficult as the onus is on them to prove the case.

Lawyer Amarick Gill said: "They have to prove and establish the criteria for their claim to succeed. It's a question of whether the unknown perimeters can be established."

That includes proving that the women are in the videos.

That itself is a difficult task, given that Chen took care to mask the faces of himself and his sex partners in the videos that he posted online.

He added that the women also have to prove that they suffered some form of embarrassment, distress or anxiety as a result of the videos, which were circulated online after netizens downloaded them.

Mr Gill said: "Whether or not (Gary) intended for the videos to be downloaded, we won't know.

"(The women) would definitely have suffered some distress or anxiety but you can't prove how many people have viewed or downloaded it."

Mr Gill also cited a problem that might occur.

"You might start having many women coming out of the woodwork, each claiming to be one of the women in the videos. Who's to prove if they are or they are not?" he said.

This article was first published in The New Paper.

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