OFFENCES
At the time of the offences, Fang was an acting teacher with a child modelling school which provides classes for students aged four to 14.
Fang met the victim at an entertainment event in May 2024, according to court documents. They exchanged contact details and chatted nearly every day.
In June 2024, Fang engaged in mostly unprotected sexual acts with the victim on nine occasions. He knew that the victim was only 15.
On Jun 6, Fang checked the victim into a hotel as she had contracted COVID-19.
That night, he visited her in her hotel room where they had sex. By then, she had started seeing Fang as a boyfriend, but he told her to keep mum about their relationship.
On Jun 12, the victim left the hotel room to meet Fang, who asked to see her. At about 12am on Jun 13, the pair went to Fang’s home where they engaged in unprotected sex. She returned to the hotel room later that morning.
The court heard that the victim’s mother would check in on her daughter at the hotel room at about 12pm.
“When the victim arrived at her hotel room at about 10am, the accused texted her to chat with her.
“During the chat, he had asked if she was ‘safe’, which meant whether she managed to evade (her mother’s) detection given that she left the hotel room earlier,” the prosecution told the court.
On Jun 17, the victim was admitted to a hospital for a flu infection and was staying in a private room. Her mother was with her but left for home later on.
At around midnight, after ensuring that the victim was alone, Fang visited her and the two had unprotected sex.
The victim’s mother eventually found out about the sexual encounters and forbade the girl from contacting him. The mother called the police on Aug 3.
Fang was arrested on Aug 4 and released on bail the next day.
IMPACT ON VICTIM
By then, the victim was feeling depressed and had been crying every day.
Despite instructions from an investigation officer not to contact the victim, Fang reached out to the victim through social media. He told her that he could not be the one contacting her, but that she would have to contact him instead.
“The victim who still had feelings for the accused obliged and called him,” Ms Lee said.
“During their phone conversations, the accused kept talking about how he would commit suicide if he went to jail.
“The accused also asked the victim to cry before (her mother) and tell her that she did not want him to go to jail and not to press charges against him.”
This made the victim feel worse and she started having suicidal thoughts. She was admitted into the Institute of Mental Health (IMH) from Aug 23 to Aug 28, 2024 and diagnosed with adjustment disorder with depressed mood.
While the victim decided to cease contact with Fang, he continued to harass her by contacting her multiple times.
On Sep 22, 2024, Fang called the victim 18 times and sent her a WhatsApp message referring to the victim’s close friend. That same month, Fang logged into the victim’s virtual room in a karaoke application.
MITIGATION
Ms Teoh, the defence lawyer, sought no more than 32 months’ jail for Fang, whom she said apologised to the victim, her family and those who looked up to him.
She said Fang had only intended to support the victim as he had a “natural tendency” to help those around him.
Ms Teoh disagreed with the prosecution’s argument that there was a high degree of exploitation in his case, as court documents did not state that Fang had pressured the victim and there was no coercion involved.
Judge Tham, noting Fang’s age at the time of the offences, said he had known what he was doing and what was likely to happen each time he visited the victim.
It was not a one-off incident where Fang acted on the spur of the moment, Judge Tham said. Instead, Fang had “taken advantage” of the victim’s naivety and emotional vulnerability, he said.
The judge added that Fang’s attempt to “gaslight the victim” for the sole purpose of “saving his own neck” was egregious.
Fang had not cared for the victim’s welfare and had breached the investigation officer’s instructions not to contact the victim, the judge said.
He allowed Fang to defer his jail term to Jun 16 to settle his personal affairs after increasing his bail by S$10,000 (US$7,700).
Born in Shanghai and educated in Singapore, Fang made his showbusiness debut in 2011 and shot to fame with the youth-themed drama On The Fringe.
He won Mediacorp’s Star Award for Best Newcomer in 2013 and went on to play leading roles in dramas like Served HOT (2014) and Tiger Mum (2015).
