Instagram e-cigarette seller who committed sex offences against minors gets jail, fine

Wan Ting Koh
·Senior Reporter
In mitigation, the man told the court that he was remorseful over his actions and that he had gotten married last year.
At the State Courts on Thursday (11 April), the man was jailed 30 months after he pleaded guilty to two counts of having sex with a minor and one count of aggravated molest involving the girl’s younger sister. (Yahoo News Singapore file photo)

SINGAPORE — After getting to know her through an online game, the 22-year-old man brought the 13-year-old girl to a sports centre toilet to have sex with her.

At the State Courts on Thursday (11 April), the man – now aged 25 – was jailed 30 months after he pleaded guilty to two counts of having sex with a minor and one count of aggravated molest involving the girl’s younger sister.

The man was also fined $15,000 for advertising and selling e-cigarettes over the Instagram app. Another seven counts of a similar nature were taken into consideration for his sentencing.

In mitigation, the man told the court that he was remorseful over his actions and that he had gotten married last year.

“(I have a) wonderful marriage now and am waiting for keys to my flat with my wife,” he said. He pleaded for a lighter sentence due to financial issues, adding that he would be collecting the keys to his flat in a year.

Met 13-year-old through online game

He first met the older girl through an online game in late 2014. They began chatting outside of the game, during which time the learnt each others ages.

The man asked the girl to be his girlfriend but the she initially refused due to their difference in age. She eventually relented and later sent him nude videos of herself at his request.

In July 2015, the man brought the girl to a handicapped toilet on the sixth floor the Jurong West Sports and Recreation Centre to have sex with her. At the time, the girl had been unaware of the man’s intentions.

At first, the girl did not want to enter the toilet and playfully tried to evade the man. However, she did so after he became angry as she did not want to disappoint him, said Deputy Public Prosecutor Nicholas Lim.

While she initially refused the man’s request for sex, she later undressed herself so as not to upset the man. The pair then had protected sex of the toilet floor.

They returned to the same spot on 20 September that year to have sex for the second time.

Molested girlfriend’s younger sister

Eight days before their second sexual encounter, the girl brought her sister over to the man’s house. She left her sister in the man’s living room and entered his bedroom.

After some 10 minutes, the younger girl began feeling scared and lonely. She knocked on the bedroom door and attracted the man’s attention.

He then brought her to another room, where he forced a kiss on the 11-year-old. The girl was disgusted by the man’s actions and wanted to throw up after the act, said DPP Lim.

The elder girl called off the relationship in late 2015 as she felt that the man was using her for sex.

Her mother later discovered their chats and nude videos. She then confronted her daughter, who admitted to having had sex with the man. The mother then took her daughter to lodge a police report.

Caught in HSA ambush

On 7 September 2017, the Health Sciences Authority (HSA) discovered that the man had been selling e-cigarettes along with their related liquids and accessories, though a public Instagram account.

HSA officers then set up a trap for the man by offering to buy e-cigarette components from him on 9 October that year. The man – who began advertising his wares in March 2016 – had made about $100 from his sales to nine buyers.

After he was apprehended, the man claimed that the Instagram account had been run by another man, with whom he had served national service. The false claim led to the other man being investigated by the police.

It was only after more than 10 months that the accused admitted to his lie.

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