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Man who posted intimate photo of 'cheating' wife jailed 13 weeks, prosecution sought 18 months

Man looking at a smartphone screen in shock.
Man looking at a smartphone screen in shock. (PHOTO: Getty Images)

SINGAPORE — A man who posted on Facebook a photo of his wife and her supervisor having sex was jailed for 13 weeks on Friday (3 December), after the prosecution unsuccessfully argued for him to be jailed for 18 months.

The 27-year-old man's actions deserved a harsh deterrent sentence, argued Deputy Public Prosecutor Foong Ke Hui. The post, which can be viewed by the public, had garnered some 1,000 comments, 2,000 shares and 3,000 likes, causing significant humiliation to the 30-year-old victim, Foong said.

The faces of the victim and her supervisor were also revealed in the post. The identities of the victim and the man are protected under a gag order.

After the sentence was passed by District Judge Kessler Soh, the prosecution indicated that it would be appealing the sentence.

The accused's lawyer Wee Hong Shern had sought a jail term of five to seven weeks, laying out the circumstances leading to his client's discovery of his wife's affair.

After the couple married on 6 August 2018, the victim promised to be more conservative, but did not keep to her promises, said the lawyer. The man divorced her in Syariah Court after three months, but remarried her on 1 July 2019, after the woman admitted to her "wrongdoings" and asked for another chance to settle down with him.

His wife then joined a new company and began returning home late. She claimed that her late hours were due to work. When the man expressed his worries, his wife mocked his insecurity.

At one point, the man checked her phone and found intimate conversations between the woman and her supervisor. When confronted, the unremorseful woman admitted to her affair but told her husband not to make things difficult and denied being sexually intimate with her supervisor.

Wanting to prove the affair, the man grabbed her phone and extracted compromising material including the intimate photo.

"This is not a situation of an offender threatening to blackmail a victim...this is between husband and wife where the wife has repeatedly cheated on him...and had the audacity to lie to his face and mock him for his insecurities," said Wee.

The man, who is now divorced, has developed major depressive disorder and has even been suicidal.

Grabbed her phone to prove the affair

He earlier pleaded guilty to one count each of distributing an intimate image and stealing his wife’s phone, with two other charges relating to the illicit material to be taken into consideration upon sentencing.

While the couple were still married, the man had moved out of their matrimonial home in December 2019 and was no longer staying with her at the time of the offences.

On 6 February last year, the woman was in her home when her husband arrived and asked to use the toilet.

As the man exited the toilet, he grabbed the woman’s phone and ran out of the house. The victim ran after him but could not catch him.

The man then searched her phone for pictures and messages to confirm his suspicion of her affair. He found several compromising images and recordings of her, and used his phone to take photographs and videos of those.

Some recordings showed the woman in states of undress, and one photo featured her and her supervisor having sex. Both their faces were visible.

The man later returned the phone but did not tell his wife what he had done.

On 12 February last year, he decided to post an intimate photo on Facebook to warn others about her.

He made the post viewable to the public and included the supervisor’s name and occupation, describing him as a home-wrecker. He also included screenshots of the conversations between the supervisor and the victim.

An hour later, the supervisor was informed by a friend about the post, and the victim received calls about the same.

The man had not expected it to gain so much attention.

Despite removing the post, he created another post to upload the same images, this time with his wife’s face blurred. He removed this post a day later.

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