Jail, caning for administrator of chat groups that shared material of boys being sexually abused

SINGAPORE: A man with a predilection for child pornography created five to six chat groups for the sole purpose of sharing abusive material featuring males aged between five and 18. 

Jong Chen Shiung, 34, would preside over these groups, removing members who failed to share material that fell within his stipulations. 

Jong was jailed for six years and given nine strokes of the cane on Tuesday (Feb 25).

Besides distributing child abuse material, Jong abetted its distribution and also possessed thousands of videos and images for his own viewing.

Jong pleaded guilty to four charges related to these offences, with another four charges of a similar nature considered for his sentencing. 

The Malaysian was working as a material freight handler in Singapore when child abuse material was found in his electronic devices. The police raided his residence in Singapore and unearthed more devices containing obscene material. 

Jong had been seeking, storing and watching pornographic videos and images while working and residing in Singapore since 2016. 

He registered accounts with chat platforms Telegram and Viber for the sole purpose of accessing chat groups where he could view the obscene material.

In total, Jong joined 20 to 30 chat groups that shared child abuse material and adult pornography across Telegram, Viber and WhatsApp.

He was invited to be the administrator for some of these groups. As administrator, he threatened to remove those who did not comply with the terms of sharing only child abuse material or porn. He would also download the videos or images for his own consumption or to share them in other chat groups.

Jong also created five to six chat groups for the sole purpose of sharing explicit material featuring males between five and 18 years old. He removed members who did not abide by the conditions he stipulated. 

Three of the chat groups he created on Viber each had between 144 and 460 participants at the time of his arrest. 

Besides the chat groups, Jong downloaded explicit videos or images from websites. He also sent private messages to young boys who were participants in the chat groups, asking them to share obscene videos of themselves. 

The police found at least 2,469 videos and 1,157 images which featured the sexual abuse of children. These featured the faces and genitals of children, some of whom were bound, struggling, or otherwise in distress. 

The prosecution sought a jail term of between 70 and 73 months, and eight to 12 strokes of the cane for Jong. 

“Offences involving child abuse material are particularly egregious because of the extreme vulnerability of the victims. The direct harm to the children involved is plain to see,” said Deputy Public Prosecutor Santhra Aiyyasamy. 

Ms Santhra added that the harm caused to the children in some videos had been high. 

In mitigation, Jong, who represented himself via videolink, said that he was the only child in his family and needed to support his ailing mother in Malaysia. 

“I hope to be able to be released earlier so that I could return home and take care of her,” Jong said through an interpreter.

“I’m a first-time offender and I’ve realised my mistakes. I promise to mend my ways and will not repeat such offences in future. Please forgive me and give me a chance to turn over a new leaf,” he added.