SINGAPORE: In a case the defence called “bizarre and weird”, a man instigated his girlfriend to take private photos of her mother for his sexual gratification.
He also threatened to beat his girlfriend or kill himself if she did not come up with other ways to “satisfy his sexual desires”.
The 25-year-old man, who cannot be named to protect the identities of his now former girlfriend and her mother, was sentenced to 20 weeks’ jail on Thursday (Sep 8).
He pleaded guilty to one count of instigating his ex-girlfriend to commit the offence of voyeurism on her mother, and a second count of threatening to distribute intimate images and recordings of his ex-girlfriend. Another two charges were considered in sentencing.
The court heard that the offender was in a romantic relationship with the victim, a 23-year-old woman, since 2018. On multiple occasions, the offender recorded videos of himself having sex with the victim.
“These recordings were made with her consent,” said the prosecutor.
About five times a week, the offender demanded that his then-girlfriend send him nudes of herself. If she refused, he would threaten to kill himself, beat her or post the nude photos or videos he already had of her online.
As a result of his threats, the woman complied with his requests.
OFFENDER THREATENED GIRLFRIEND
In early 2020, the offender told his girlfriend that the intimate images and recordings “no longer sufficed to satisfy his sexual desires”, the court heard.
Fearing that the offender would beat her or post her nudes online, the girlfriend suggested that he imagine himself having sex with her mother instead.
The offender agreed, but said it “would not suffice” to just imagine and demanded that she take photos of her mother in the nude, court documents stated.
The girlfriend then surreptitiously took a photo of her mother’s bare chest when she exited the shower at home, and sent the photo to the offender.
Later that year, the offender posed as his girlfriend and sent nude photos of her to a stranger on a messaging service.
When the girlfriend asked to end the relationship, the offender would refuse and repeated his threats to beat her and post the nudes online.
In February last year, the offender told his girlfriend that he “needed to satisfy his sexual desires” and demanded that she think of ways to do so. When she replied that she could not, the offender threatened her again.
On another occasion, he repeated his demand and told her to contact strangers for sex. This time, he threatened to upload the photo of his girlfriend’s mother and use it as his display picture on social media platforms.
The victim was afraid and downloaded the mobile application Tinder where she contacted strangers and asked for sex, before sending the conversations to the offender as he demanded.
She finally reported the matter to the police on Mar 14, 2021. When the offender learnt of this, he deleted all the messages and intimate footage and photos he had of his girlfriend.
“DEPRAVED”, SAYS PROSECUTOR
Deputy Public Prosecutor Bryont Chin asked for 18 to 21 weeks’ jail, citing the severity and frequency of the threats and the fact that the offender was in an intimate relationship with the victim.
“The accused threatened to post the images and recordings on widely used platforms like Instagram and Reddit,” said Mr Chin. “When posting, it would have been immortalised on the Internet and further propagated.”
He slammed the offender’s “depravity”, saying he committed the offences “for his own perverted sexual gratification”.
Defence lawyer S S Dhillon said his client pleaded guilty at the first opportunity.
“From the outset, (I) highlight that this is a bizarre and weird relationship between the first victim and the accused,” he said.
“On multiple occasions when they engaged in sex, the accused recorded videos showing the victim having sex with him. The recordings were made with her consent. Such is the extent of their relationship. It’s not a one-sided affair, but both parties were doing this with consent,” he said.
He said that it was the victim who suggested the offender imagine having sex with her mother.
District Judge Paul Chan interjected and said he did not consider this mitigatory.
JUDGE REJECTS DEFENCE’S ARGUMENT
“If you consider the circumstances in which the first victim made this suggestion – she did so because she feared the accused would beat her or post her images. It’s not mitigatory that it was the first victim who made this suggestion – she was coerced into making this suggestion,” he said.
Mr Dhillon repeated that this was “a bizarre and weird relationship” and said it was also the victim’s suggestion for her to have sex with strangers. He said his client was not “a mastermind of the whole enterprise”.
He said his client is a first-time offender and has a medical record for anxiety attacks and depression, but was unable to obtain the Institute of Mental Health report as he cannot afford it.
Mr Dhillon said his client has since broken off the relationship with the victim and has “never disturbed her”.
“He realises that he is wrong. He is remorseful and has never reoffended all this time,” he said.
Judge Chan told the offender that his offences “are depraved and have no place in our society”.
“I note that while the accused did not perform the act of taking the photographs himself, his culpability was quite high indeed,” said the judge.
He added that the offence occurred in a context where the offender very frequently threatened to kill himself, beat the victim or post her nudes online.
Hence, the girlfriend was “compelled to think of an alternative”, he said.
“The first victim merely suggested that the accused imagine himself having sex with the second victim. The accused took this further and demanded that the first victim take photos of the second victim,” said Judge Chan.
“He knew she could do this as the second victim would not have her guard up against the first victim, who was her own daughter.”
He disagreed with the defence’s argument that the offender was not the mastermind.