SINGAPORE: Over seven years, a teenager-turned-young adult preyed sexually on those around him – beginning with minors at a playground and progressing to schoolmates and his bunkmates in National Service.
The man, now 24, pleaded guilty in the High Court on Monday (Aug 7) to 10 charges, which include sexual penetration of minors and molestation. Another 33 charges will be considered in sentencing.
The court heard that the accused was between 14 and 21 at the time of his offending against at least 28 victims that the prosecution placed into five groups.
He first preyed sexually on the first group – children in his neighbourhood – from 2013. He forced a seven-year-old girl to perform sex acts on him while pretending to play hide and seek.
He stopped his offending against the children in this group after a few years, as he was concerned that they might tell their parents about him.
The second group of victims were classmates and schoolmates in his secondary school.
When he was serving national service at the age of 19 and 20, he molested his bunkmates – the third group of victims – as they slept.
He also molested a classmate while at another school at the age of 21, and began targeting strangers he met online or chanced on.
CONDUCT CAUGHT
The offender’s conduct did not go unnoticed. As early as 2012, his secondary school received a report about his alleged sexual offence and indecent exposure.
He was given a verbal warning, his parent was informed and he was given counselling by the school.
He was reported by a victim to the school authorities in 2013 and he was temporarily suspended. He was told to seek further counselling and his mother took him to an external counselling centre.
The school found out again in 2014 that the offender had molested boys at a school camp. He was suspended by the school.
The offender was suspended again by his school in 2015 after another victim made a report of molestation.
The offender was arrested a few times in 2020 and released on police bail after victims made police reports.
It was only in October 2020, when a victim confided in her teacher about what the offender did against her as a child, that the offender was re-arrested and remanded.
At one point in 2020, the offender had entered his secondary school wearing his old school uniform to avoid being stopped by security.
He targeted a 13-year-old boy, luring him to a secluded area by pretending he was doing an interview, before photographing his hands and feet for his own gratification.
He then molested the boy and put his nose on the boy’s bare feet on the pretext of taking a “selfie”.
A psychiatrist with the Institute of Mental Health found that the offender had a fetish for the hands and feet of boys in lower secondary school, but had no mental illness or intellectual disability.
The psychiatrist added that the offender had a risk of reoffending against male teenagers and tends to choose victims who are less mature and more vulnerable.
The psychiatrist added that “based on the prior counselling and interventions received” by the offender, he did not appear “to have received adequate treatment”.
Deputy Public Prosecutors Chong Kee En and Tin Shu Min sought 15 to 20 years’ jail and at least six strokes of the cane, while defence lawyers Josephus Tan, Josiah Zee and Cory Wong of Invictus Law sought not more than 13 to 15 years’ jail and not more than six strokes.
Mr Chong said the accused had a long duration of offending against multiple victims “in almost every stage of his adolescence and approaching adult life”.
He said the man’s borderline intelligence was not mitigating, and said the claim by the defence that the offender was himself a sexual assault victim as a boy was “not quite borne out” by investigations.
Defence lawyer Mr Josephus Tan said the defence was not very far apart in terms of the sentences sought.
“But we say we have to be fair. When some of these offences were committed, he himself was a juvenile,” he said, charging that “the system failed him when he was young” as there was “no intervention”.
The judge will deliver her sentence at a later date.