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Blogger who used sex videos to blackmail teenage girl gets jail, caning

Cher had attempted to extort a total of $5,050 from the victim.
Lennon Sanusi Cher Fan Jin claimed he committed the offences as he was facing financial difficulties. (PHOTO: Getty Images)

SINGAPORE — A 30-year-old blogger filmed his sex acts with an 18-year-old girl and then used the obscene images to blackmail her for money.

Lennon Sanusi Cher Fan Jin claimed he committed the offences as he was facing financial difficulties.

At the State Courts on Tuesday (17 September), the live blogger was sentenced to two years and three months’ jail, along with two strokes of the cane. He had pleaded guilty to two out of six counts of placing the girl in fear of harm to her reputation through extortion, with the remaining taken into consideration for sentencing.

Cher had attempted to extort a total of $5,050 from the girl, who cannot be named to protect her identity.

‘Better do what you promise me’

The pair first met in January 2017 through a social networking platform.

They engaged in sexual acts on several occasions, with Cher filming the acts, purportedly for his own viewing pleasure. He would inform the girl about the filming at the end of each act.

Between July and mid-August 2017, Cher told the victim that he had financial problems and sought her help. She sent him between $100 and $1,000 during that period.

On 8 August that year, the girl agreed to give him $50 daily as financial assistance.

When she asked him about his troubles, Cher became evasive and refused to provide details, said the prosecution.

Suspicious of his purported difficulties, the girl decided to stop giving Cher money and also refused to meet him.

On 16 August 2017, Cher sent the victim a screenshot of her performing a sexual act through Facebook Messenger along with the text, “You say I bother you? Better do what you promise me every day and I won’t bother you.”

When the victim did not accede to Cher’s demands, he asked for a lump sum of $1,000 instead. He also set up another Facebook account under the name “Kalus Tan” to send her more threats on 28 August.

The next day, he sent her a nude photo of herself and demanded $1,000 from her, threatening to upload the photo.

The girl made a police report on 28 August and Cher was arrested on 2 September.

Offences were planned: prosecution

Deputy Public Prosecutor Michelle Tay asked for a sentence of two years and three months jail for each extortion charge. She noted that the threats were serious and of a scandalising nature.

Tay added that Cher’s act of setting up a fake Facebook account showed that he had planned the offences.

Cher was also sentenced to 21 months’ probation for theft as a servant in 2007.

For each count of extortion, Cher could have been jailed up to five years and caned.

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