Man who demanded 'cash or body' from woman over her nude photos jailed
He threatened to disseminate a woman’s nude photos which he had obtained from her ex-boyfriend and asked her for to choose between “cash or body”.
For that, Alexandra Chan Chee Meng, a 44-year-old Singaporean, will spend two months in jail.
The senior storekeeper at a hospital pleaded guilty to one count of criminal intimidation on Friday (4 May) after he threatened to transmit the 25-year-old woman’s compromising photos to others.
His last message to her had been, “I think you dun want to settler (sic) your sexy photo rite? Nvm I think a lot of guy’s like to have the free photo”.
The woman and her ex-boyfriend cannot be named due to a gag order. The ex-boyfriend was earlier sentenced to two months’ jail for transmitting obscene material.
Chan, who is married with a son, harassed the woman for seven months after first receiving her nude photos from her ex-boyfriend, who voluntarily gave them to him despite having never met him before.
The ex-boyfriend obtained the woman’s photos when the two were in a relationship between December 2011 and January 2015. The woman allowed her ex-boyfriend to take the photos on the condition that he delete them shortly after.
Some five months after the couple broke up, the ex-boyfriend uploaded the nude photos onto Tumblr. He took the photos down two weeks after when the woman confronted him but uploaded them again later that year. He also posted a message offering more photos to users who contacted him privately.
Chan saw the message on 23 September 2015 and messaged the ex-boyfriend, who sent him at least eight images of the woman. Some of the photos were nude. The ex-boyfriend then gave Chan the woman’s mobile number and suggested that Chan “try his luck to coax the victim into performing oral sex (on him),” said the prosecution, represented by Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Gabriel Lim.
The ex-boyfriend also asked Chan to send a picture of the woman performing oral sex on Chan.
On the same day, Chan sent the woman a photo of herself fully clothed through messaging app WeChat, and hinted that he had “other type” of her photos as well. The woman asked him how he obtained the photo but Chan insisted on meeting her first. He later sent her nude photos of herself that were censored, and demanded to meet her. He told her “looking at your this photo got me feel something”.
He continued harassing her even though she either ignored him or made excuses not to meet him. In December, he also texted her lewd animated pictures and asked, “which one you like style?”
On 23 April 2016, Chan used another messaging app, Line, to contact the woman. The woman recognised him and asked if Chan was threatening her. He replied, “I’m not threatening you. Only want to give you a lesson”. He sent her two topless photos of herself. When the woman said she would lodge a police report, Chan implied that the photos would not be deleted if she did.
When the woman asked Chan what he wanted, the latter replied, “wat you can offer me to take it back. Cash or body.” He asked the woman to meet him in a hotel room at night.
On the same day, the woman’s current boyfriend confronted Chan about the photos through her Line account but Chan insisted on settling the matter with only the woman.
Two days later, after having received no reply from the woman, Chan sent, “I think you dun want to settler your sexy photo rite? Nvm I think a lot of guy’s like to have the free photo, and tell (the boyfriend) dun try to art (sic) hero”.
The woman filed a police report on 22 May 2016. It was not revealed in court how Chan was arrested, nor if he disseminated any of the woman’s photos.
DPP Lim called for two months’ jail for Chan, whom he said held the woman’s nude photos as a “bargaining chip”. He said that Chan’s “prolonged and persistent” behaviour put the woman in “grave fear”.
Chan’s lawyer T M Sinnadurai said his client made a “foolish mistake” and regretted his offence. He cited an appeal letter submitted by Chan’s wife, who described Chan as a “loving husband” who has “done what he can to provide for his family”.
For threatening to hurt the woman’s reputation through criminal intimidation, Chan could have been jailed up to 10 years and/or fined.
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