SINGAPORE: A bus enthusiast who sexually abused several minors and procured videos of a minor doing an obscene act was sentenced to 16 years’ imprisonment and 12 strokes of the cane on Monday (Mar 24).
The 25-year-old Singaporean man, who cannot be named due to a gag order, pleaded guilty on Monday (Mar 24) to one count of sexual assault by penetration of a 14-year-old boy, one count of rape of a 13-year-old boy, one count of sexual exploitation of a child and one count of voyeurism.
Another seven charges of a similar nature were taken into consideration for his sentencing.
According to his court documents, there were five victims in total – all of whom cannot be named due to a gag order. At the time of the offences, four were aged between 13 and 15, while one was 21 years old.
Details of his sexual abuse came to light on Oct 17, 2022, after his friend lodged a police report against him. The complainant was a fellow member of the bus-spotting community and was friends with several of the accused’s victims, who had confided in him about the sexual acts perpetrated by the accused.
According to court documents, the complainant reported to the police that he believed the accused had sexually harassed at least four minors between 2018 and 2022.
The man was arrested on Oct 24, 2022 on suspicion that he had committed an offence by sexual assault by penetration and has been in remand since then.
WHAT HAPPENED
The High Court heard that sometime in 2017, the victim, who was 13 to 14 years old at the time, had purchased bus-themed paraphernalia from the man, who was then 19.
They continued chatting over Carousell and WhatsApp, mostly about buses, and became friends.
In November 2018, the victim invited the man, along with a close friend, to his house to hang out. No one else was at the victim’s house that day.
While using the victim’s computer, the man suddenly asked if he could perform a sexual act on him. Shocked, the victim said no.
Despite this, the man sexually assaulted him.
The accused also pleaded guilty to raping another minor – a 13-year-old boy – between August and December 2021.
He had met the boy at a bus interchange sometime in 2020, and the pair exchanged contact details after talking about their shared interest in buses. At the time, the man was 22 years old.
Around June 2021, he began to take more of an interest in the boy and started messaging him regularly. Two months later, he started messaging the boy about sexual matters and would ask him to send intimate photographs and videos.
When the pair had disagreements or disputes, the man would demand the boy to send him photographs of his genitals as “punishment”. He also became possessive and controlling towards the victim, demanding daily meets and frequent calls.
At the man’s request, the boy sent videos of himself stripping and showering, on multiple occasions between August 2021 and March 2022.
The man also began touching the boy around August 2021 and the sexual acts escalated over time.
The court heard that the boy did not want to participate in these acts and found them disgusting but did not know what to do.
The man stopped insisting that the boy participate in sexual acts with him after the victim threatened to lodge a police report against him in March 2022.
In 2022, the man, then 23, got to know another victim through a mutual friend. The younger man, who had a mild interest in buses, was 21 at the time.
Sometime in late-2022, the man recorded a video of the victim urinating, without his consent.
Despite the victim telling him to leave, the man remained in the wheelchair-accessible toilet and filmed a video that lasted 21 seconds, capturing the victim’s genitals and the act of urination.
The video was later retrieved from the man’s phone by the police, following his arrest.
Deputy Public Prosecutors Sarah Siaw and Darren Sim sought a sentence of at least 15.5 years to 17.5 years’ imprisonment, and 12 strokes of the cane, given the scale and severity of the man’s offences.
“The accused was a serial sexual predator who exploited multiple teenage boys. This conduct is both harmful and deplorable, and the sentence imposed should send a clear signal that preying on the young will not be tolerated,” they said in their submission.
In sentencing, Justice Valerie Thean said that “some” consideration could be given to the man’s age at the time of the first offense, but added that it would not be much, in view of all the facts.
She also noted that the first victim – the 14-year-old boy – suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder, following the incident.
