Profiles (Page 3)

DATA ANALYTICS, SELF- SERVICE TICKETINGKIOSKS

Self-service ticketing shops with facial recognition capabilities have been set up at indoor skydiving interest iFly Singapore in Sentosa to manage host check-ins as well as the research and pay processes for photos and videos taken during the trip. &nbsp,
 
In order to observe and compile visitor data, such as demographic profiles, footfall, and explore times, iFly Singapore also uses data analytical tools. These data are then used for qualified sales strategies and marketing campaigns to boost visitorship and increase average customer spend. &nbsp,
 
People used to wait at the reception desk for 10 to 15 minutes just to inquire about this waiver variety, according to Lawrence Koh, the founder and CEO of iFly Singapore. ” How do you fill it up?” and so forth. However, the majority of them will have already registered online at this point and are only there to assess in and get a tag.
 
A customer relationship management system is used at the domestic park Kiztopia, which has numerous stores, to gather data on customers ‘ prior payments, website visits, and wedding with marketing emails.
 
As a result, Kiztopia was able to use the information to create targeted selling campaigns for their various user segments. &nbsp,
 
Additionally, it is investing in the universe system, a idea that many people may not be familiar with at the moment.
 
People have heard about it, but Heidi Tian, the chairman and chief executive officer of Kiztopia, said that in order to truly experience it and use it. &nbsp,
 
” The parents of our clients are our objective.” There is always some balancing on how much parents are ready for their children to be exposed to like interactive games because we also want the kids to play in the metaverse.

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Warning: This story mentions suicide and contains descriptions of a suicide attempt.

SINGAPORE: A managing director of a training company who suffered insomnia after mistakenly thinking his business was failing stabbed his wife and their unborn child to death.

David Brian Chow Kwok-Hun began ruminating on the financial health of his company after receiving a half-year financial report from an accounting employee that showed low-performing numbers.

The numbers were later found to be inaccurate. Despite his family encouraging him and trying to seek help for him, Chow made up his mind to kill himself and his wife, in order to “save” her and their unborn child from any debtors.

After another night of insomnia, he grabbed a kitchen knife and stabbed his pregnant wife to death.

He then tried to kill himself but was unsuccessful and decided to call the police to avoid implicating his father who was on his way to fetch him.

Chow, a 35-year-old Singaporean, pleaded guilty on Thursday (Oct 26) to one charge of culpable homicide not amounting to murder.

He had been suffering from adjustment disorder with anxious and depressed mood at the time of the offence and qualified for the partial defence of diminished responsibility.

The court heard that Chow and the victim, 30-year-old Isabel Elizabeth Francis, registered their marriage in 2019 and lived together in a flat since May 2021.

Chow was the managing director of KnowledgeTree Training Centre, a training company providing workforce skills qualifications and other courses.

In December 2021, he asked for the company’s half-year financial report from his accounting staff. 

When he received the report, he went through the numbers and felt there must have been an error, as the numbers were unusually low. He asked the employee to check again and get back.

In January 2022, the accounting staff got back to Chow and confirmed that the numbers were accurate.

It was later revealed that the numbers were wrong and were not an accurate representation of the company’s financial health.

DESCENT INTO TROUBLED THOUGHTS

Chow began thinking that the company was not doing well and would probably run into failure. This was despite the fact that it had been profitable, racking up S$1 million (US$729,000) in earlier profits.

Between Jan 5 and Jan 7 in 2022, Chow began losing sleep. He was worried and stressed over the company finances and slept only one to two hours per night on average. His family members, wife and colleagues noticed his behaviour.

When Chow spoke to the manager of his company about finances on Jan 8, 2022, the manager saw that he looked stressed and noted that the company was still making a profit.

Chow’s mother and brother also met him to talk about the finances and assured him that the company was still making a profit.

Because of what the company earned over the years, it was in a financially sound position to weather the next two years. 

His parents also had dinner with him to encourage him and assure him that everything would be fine.

Chow’s wife booked a counselling session with a counsellor to help him deal with his work stress, but Chow continued losing sleep over the finances.

He began seeing things in his head if he closed his eyes, including images of soldiers marching, a devil and “a scary dog”.

His family members continued trying to reach out to Chow. His father made an appointment for him to see a psychiatrist and arranged to ferry him to work.

Chow tried listing down his problems on a counselling worksheet and felt slightly better, but still could not sleep.

At about 1am on Jan 11, 2022, Chow began pacing up and down the corridor of his flat in Ang Mo Kio.

He continued ruminating over his business concerns and looking at the LinkedIn profiles of business competitors.

He logged into an e-learning portal and realised his employee still had not rectified an issue that was earlier pointed out, and was concerned that his mother would scold the employee, who would leave.

The managing director was also worried about his employees quitting and losing confidence in him, as they had noticed him breaking down.

THE DAY OF THE KILLING

From 3am to 4am that day, he began having suicidal thoughts – the first time he had such thoughts, court documents showed. He was worried that his wife would feel shame from having a husband who took his own life.

If his business failed, he fretted that others would go after his wife and unborn child.

The man felt he had to do something, and thought of killing his wife to spare her and their unborn child, so they could “go to heaven” while he killed himself, said the prosecution.

At about 5am, Chow took a knife from the kitchen and headed to the master bedroom, where his wife lay sleeping on her side.

He turned her and thrust the knife into her abdomen, telling her: “Sorry, I have no way out.”

He then stabbed her multiple times in her head, neck, abdomen and back until she stopped moving.

After killing his wife, Kwok checked the peephole of his main door to make sure no one had been alerted by his wife’s screams.

He tried various ways to end his life, including stabbing himself with another knife and asking the “devil to take him”, said the prosecution, adding that he also took an assortment of tablets.

Chow realised his father had sent him a message saying he was on his way to fetch him. Chow decided to call the police to tell them that he had killed his wife, as he did not want to implicate his father.

He also did not want his father to see the state that he and his wife were in, so he called his father and asked him not to come over. After calling the police, Chow unlocked the main door and lay down to wait.

The police and paramedics arrived shortly after and the victim was pronounced dead while Chow was taken to hospital and arrested.

An autopsy of Chow’s wife found that she had died of stab wounds to her back and neck. She had suffered 10 stab wounds and five incised wounds on her head, neck and torso, two of which were fatal.

An autopsy was also done on the foetus, which was found to be a girl of about 15 weeks’ gestational age. It would not survive at such an age if it had been born, medical reports stated.

Chow was assessed by an associate consultant from the Institute of Mental Health, who found that he was suffering from adjustment disorder with anxious and depressed mood at the time of the offence.

While the IMH doctor and the defence psychiatrist had different diagnoses of the subtype of adjustment disorder Chow suffered, they agreed that he had symptoms of anxious and depressed mood.

Chow was found to have catastrophic thinking, fearing that he would go bankrupt and was overwhelmed by the premonition that people would go after his wife if he did.

However, his impulse control was not impaired, as he had performed goal-directed actions in killing his wife, said Deputy Public Prosecutor Jiang Ke-Yue.

Mr Jiang said Chow had penned his thoughts in the counselling sheet prior to the killing, tested the sharpness of the knife and covered his wife’s mouth before checking if anyone heard her screams.

He was not of unsound mind and was fit to plead.

The prosecution is seeking nine to 12 years’ jail for Chow.

Chow is defended by Mr Shashi Nathan, Mr Jeremy Mark Pereira and Mr U Sudharshanraj Naidu from Withers KhattarWong. His family members attended the court hearing.

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SINGAPORE: A secondary school teacher who enjoyed discussing their physical experiences with people made the decision to create two fictitious social media profiles to do so.

Six victims, the majority of whom were in their teens, were tricked into having sex with Tay Tong Wei by pretending to be a male or female student. In addition, & nbsp,

Additionally, 36-year-old Tay sent them vulgar video or pictures that he claimed were of himself. & nbsp,

Tay admitted guilt to seven counts of electronic distribution of pornographic material and encouraging a female prey to deliver lewd videos of herself. When he is sentenced, another 40 charges of a similar essence may be taken into account. & nbsp,

Tay was a secondary school teacher at the time of the offenses. He now works as a personal tutor. & nbsp,

At the time of the crimes, the six victims — three men and three women — were between the ages of 15 and 20. To guard their identities, none of them can be named. & nbsp,

The prosecutor was informed that Tay discovered in 2013 or 2014 that talking to others about their physical experiences gave him sexual pleasure. He created two fictitious social media profiles to do this, nbsp.

One was a Jasmin-related Facebook page, and the other was made up of Facebook and Snapchat profiles of young men known as” Mikey Cool” or Mike. & nbsp,

He started chatting with a feminine victim who was 17 years old at the time as Jasmin in November 2015. The victim became comfortable with the topic because she thought Jasmin was a woman her own age when he started talking about sexual matters with her.

Mike, who was also the accused, was then introduced to the target by Jasmin, and the two immediately started talking about sex.

Tay would give her pictures and videos of people engaging in sexual acts after the victim publicly shared her intimate experiences. He claimed that Jasmin had intercourse with her partner in one of the video. & nbsp,

Mike left the defendant’s sexual toy on a chair close to their home between 2015 and 2016. It was recovered by the prey. & nbsp,

In 2017, Tay, posing as Jasmin, made friends with another girl who was then 19 years old on Facebook and asked the victim, whom she referred to as” elder sister ,” for advice on sexual matters. & nbsp,

According to Deputy Public Prosecutor Sheldon Lim,” Jasmin told( the victim ) that she had recently gotten together with her boyfriend, and asked[ the target ] how to sexually gratify him.” & nbsp,

The victim gave her advice and related her personal erotic experiences because she thought she was speaking to a younger lady. The target declined to give any videos of her and her boyfriend having sex when Jasmin asked for them.

Otherwise, the victim consented to take her nude photo after Jasmin sent a picture of what appeared to be herself. & nbsp,

In January 2016, Tay introduced himself as Jasmin to a female victim who was 15 years old through Facebook and started having expressed conversations with him. & nbsp,

” Jasmin and the victim chatted about a variety of physical issues from 2016 until June 2019.” According to court documents,” The victim would tell Jasmin about the sexual acts that he wanted to perform on her, and JaSmin would respond by telling( the victim ) about those acts. & nbsp,

Tay did the same to a different female victim who was 17 at the time and whom he had become friends with on Facebook in 2016.

On October 30, Tay may appear in court again for a imprisonment. & nbsp,

He could receive a jail sentence of up to & nbsp, three months, or both for spreading offensive material.

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SINGAPORE: A stranger who sexually assaulted a six-year-old girl while she played hide-and-seek at the void deck of a Housing Board block was sentenced to 11 years’ jail on Monday (Oct 2).

Police solved the cold case from 2014 through DNA profiling after the offender, Lau Seng Kee, was arrested for an obscene act in front of another child last year.

His DNA matched with DNA taken from semen in the 2014 sexual assault, which had been stored in a database for eight years.

After being nabbed, Lau, now 60, admitted to police that he had previously masturbated in front of primary school girls in uniform.

He also admitted to six or seven instances when he went around looking specifically for “round-faced” young primary school girls, prosecutors said.

He pleaded guilty to one charge of aggravated sexual assault involving the six-year-old victim.

Two other charges were considered for sentencing – for sexual exploitation of the six-year-old on the same occasion in 2014, and for an obscene act committed in public in front of another young girl in 2022.

VICTIM SUFFERED “RECURRING THOUGHTS” ABOUT THE ASSAULT

Around noon on Feb 21, 2014, the six-year-old victim and her eight-year-old sister were at the void deck of a Housing and Development Board block.

The identity of the victim and the location of the offence are gagged by court order.

The sisters, who were accompanied by their maid, decided to play hide-and-seek. The victim was wearing her primary school physical education uniform at the time.

During the game, she saw Lau loitering at a staircase area in the void deck. She ignored him, but noticed that he was smiling at her from a distance.

Unable to find her sister, the victim went to search the staircase area. Lau beckoned to her to follow him and she did so, following him up a flight of stairs.

At the staircase landing, Lau turned to face the victim and suddenly exposed his private parts to her.

He made a suggestive comment to the victim and directed her to touch him and perform a sexual act. 

After the assault, Lau smiled at the victim and walked up the stairs. The girl went back down, where her sister asked where she had gone, and she told her sister what had happened.

The school bus then came and both sisters boarded it. Later that night, during dinner, the victim told her father what had happened and he lodged a police report.

During the assault, Lau’s semen got onto the girl’s shirt. DNA profiles were obtained from the semen and stored in the Health Sciences Authority’s database.

The victim saw a child psychiatrist in March 2014, who reported that the girl suffered from “recurring thoughts” about the assault.

“Despite the police’s best efforts, they were unable to establish any actionable leads and the investigative efforts ceased in 2020 after almost six years of work,” said prosecutors.

The breakthrough came in May 2022. Police got a call from a parent who identified Lau as the man who had stared at and approached his nine-year-old daughter at a playground, even offering to buy her ice cream.

While the police were interviewing Lau, a cleaner came by and told officers he had seen Lau masturbating in public about two to three weeks ago in front of a girl aged nine or 10, who was crying.

The cleaner had given chase but lost sight of Lau, and had been looking out for him ever since.

Police arrested Lau and took a DNA sample from him. It registered a cold hit against the DNA profile from the 2014 case, identifying him as the suspect.

CAUSES DEEP PUBLIC DISQUIET, SAYS PROSECUTION

During sentencing arguments, Deputy Public Prosecutors Wong Woon Kwong and Jean Goh said serious sexual crimes committed against children cause deep public disquiet.

In this case, they pointed out that the assault was carried out in broad daylight in a public housing estate against a child who was a stranger to the offender.

“This causes significant unease to the public at large and to parents in particular, who ought to be able to have their children play in HDB void decks without fear of sexual assault,” they argued.

They described Lau’s conduct as “predatory”, as he laid in wait for the victim and lured her away from her sister and maid to an isolated stairwell.

They noted the victim’s vulnerability given her age, which is significantly younger than the age ceiling of 14 years for the offence of aggravated sexual assault.

The prosecutors also argued that Lau’s 2022 offence “makes clear that the passage of time had not dampened the accused’s alarming sexual predilection for young girls”.

They sought nine-and-a-half to 11-and-a-half years’ jail for Lau, with an additional six months in lieu of 12 strokes of the cane.

Lau cannot be caned as he is above 50.

Defence counsel Kalaithasan Karuppaya and Cheryl Sim asked for a shorter sentence, highlighting that Lau pleaded guilty instead of claiming trial.

Ms Sim told the court her client was deeply apologetic and ashamed, and that he had lost his job and the trust of friends and loved ones as a result of his actions.

Justice Valerie Thean sentenced Lau to 10-and-a-half years’ jail, with an additional six months in lieu of 12 strokes of the cane.

Lau could have been jailed for eight to 20 years for the offence, which also carries a mandatory minimum penalty of at least 12 strokes of the cane.

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