SINGAPORE: Over about four years, a married man targeted five women into sending him sexually explicit pictures and videos by posing as a pimp from a prostitution ring or the boss of a lingerie business.
One victim, who told him she was in debt and needed money, wound up doing sex work and was tricked into having sex with him.
Muhammad Nazri Sapar, 32, pleaded guilty on Wednesday (Oct 26) to 15 charges, including cheating by personation, criminal intimidation and extortion.
Another 31 charges will be considered in sentencing, which was adjourned to November.
The court heard that Nazri carried out the crimes between November 2014 and April 2018 on five women who were aged between 19 and 33 at the time.
He had two schemes to get free sexual services and sexually explicit pictures and videos from Malay women, whom he specifically targeted, said Deputy Public Prosecutor Lim Ying Min.
The first was his fake persona as a pimp in a prostitution ring. He created a Facebook account in 2014 posing as a woman, using photos he got online.
In November 2014, he added a 19-year-old woman on Facebook. The victim told him she was in debt and needed money, and he suggested that she work as a sex worker.
He said a “Nurul Huda” would contact her, and texted the victim posing as Nurul Huda, claiming she was a sex worker in a prostitution ring.
Nurul Huda told the victim about working as a sex worker and said the victim would have to send nude photos to join the ring. The victim would also have to let the pimp try her sexual services, he said.
The victim agreed and sent nude photographs of herself to the pimp, which was really Nazri.
She subsequently joined the concocted prostitution ring, and Nazri arranged for clients for her. The victim worked as a sex worker from November 2014 and April 2015.
According to Nurul Huda’s instructions, she charged S$50 for oral sex and S$100 for sex, and was allowed to keep all of her earnings.
In exchange, Nazri would ask her for photos and videos of her sexual engagements with clients. The victim estimated that she sent Nazri more than 20 photos and fewer than 10 videos during the six months.
In April 2015, Nazri realised that the victim had stopped her sex work. He posed as Nurul Huda and told the victim that the pimp was disappointed that she had stopped without informing him.
He told the victim that she had to have a session with the pimp in order to exit the industry. The victim agreed and had sex with Nazri.
Over about three years after this, Nazri sent a series of threatening and harassing emails to the victim. He sent her compromising photos of her and threatened to post them online, to let her family know she was involved in sex work, or to get her sister involved in such work.
He told the victim to do any of the following if she did not want him to make good on his threats: To find new girls for him, record herself having sex with other men and send him the footage, be a sex worker, send him nudes daily or be his mistress.
Initially, the victim tried to find new girls for Nazri. When she failed, she opted to be his mistress instead. However, Nazri “remained unsatisfied” and the victim eventually sent him photos of herself performing sex acts on other men.
Despite this, Nazri continued to threaten her so he could get more of such photos and videos. The victim eventually reported the matter to the police in April 2017.
As a second modus operandi, Nazri posed as a female lingerie consultant who was purportedly trained overseas. He made Facebook posts saying he was urgently looking for a personal assistant.
He advertised attractive working conditions and remuneration, with a starting pay of S$2,500 for a home-based job with flexible hours.
As part of the selection process, Nazri asked the applicants to send him photographs and videos of themselves in underwear and claimed to be an expert in female health.
One woman was tricked into sending him 59 videos and 87 photos from September 2017 to January 2018.
A SCAM FOR FREE SEX: PROSECUTOR
The prosecution sought 11 to 13 years’ jail and three to six strokes of the cane for Nazri.
Ms Lim said Nazri’s “multi-faceted and multi-victim scheme was essentially a scam for free sexual services and sexually explicit material”.
He wove an “elaborate tale of operating a prostitution ring”, conjuring fictitious characters and posing as them at various points, she said.
When the victims “expressed reticence or hesitation”, Nazri would lie that they were about to get the job over other potential candidates. He also manipulated his existing victims into looking for further potential victims for him, said Ms Lim.
She said Nazri’s culpability was at the highest level as he acted with clear premeditation and showed no remorse or doubt when going about “his spree of offending behaviour”.
He will return to court for sentencing on Nov 16.