SINGAPORE: After breaking up, a man and a woman carried on an intimate relationship for a few months, and the woman got pregnant.
When she told the man about the pregnancy, he paid for her abortion as he believed she had conceived with him.
He later accessed her account on a dating platform without her knowledge, and saw messages suggesting she had sex with someone else after their break-up.
Suspecting that he might not have been the father, the ex-boyfriend used his access to the woman’s email and social media accounts to pressure her to meet him.
The 28-year-old man pleaded guilty on Wednesday (Jan 8) to two counts under the Computer Misuse Act and one count of threatening to distribute intimate images of the victim.
Five other charges will be taken into consideration when he returns for sentencing on Feb 13.
The man and woman cannot be named as their identities are protected by a gag order.
They met while working at the same cafe, and were in a relationship from January to July 2023. They continued to be intimate until about September 2023.
With the woman’s consent, the man obtained nude photos of her and videos of them engaging in sexual acts during this period.
Around October 2023, the woman found out she was pregnant and told the man. He paid for an abortion as he was “under the impression” she had conceived with him, Deputy Public Prosecutor Hairul Hakkim said.
On Nov 16, 2023, the man realised he could access the woman’s Google account as she had previously logged onto it on his laptop.
He went into her Gmail inbox without her permission, and saw email notifications from the dating app Bumble. He clicked in and logged into her Bumble account.
He saw messages the woman sent in early September 2023, telling a friend that she was going to have sex with a person she had met online.
The man started wondering if he was truly the father in the woman’s pregnancy, and wanted to meet her to ask her about this.
He also discovered that he could access her Instagram and Hotmail accounts on his laptop, and logged into them without her consent.
He changed the passwords to her Gmail and Instagram accounts.
Later that morning, the man sent text messages to the woman, demanding that she call him and saying that he was “not having any mercy” on her.
The woman asked if he had changed her email password. He did not respond, but continued to demand to meet her.
The man threatened to delete her Instagram and Gmail accounts if she did not send him her “live” location.
He also threatened to post nude photos of her on her Instagram account, and to post her Bumble messages on Instagram while tagging her parents.
When the woman did not respond to his repeated threats, he took a screenshot of her Bumble chat with a male friend in which they made reference to having sex.
He posted the screenshot on the woman’s Instagram story along with an invitation to be her next “friend with benefits”.
He put the woman’s personal phone number in the caption, and also tagged her mother’s Instagram account.
After this, the man threatened to publish a new Instagram post every five minutes if the woman did not respond to him.
The existing Instagram story post was deleted from the woman’s account shortly after.
The man moved on to the woman’s Hotmail account, using it to send an email to her father titled “I’m not a good daughter”.
The email contained a document named “My sins” that had various screenshots, such as the woman’s Google Maps searches for directions to various hotels, and her messages with Bumble users.
He told the woman he had sent the email to her father, in order to pressure her to accede to his demands to meet him.
The woman told her father about the email and he deleted it before reading its contents. She also made a police report.
Later, when the woman indicated she was willing to meet, the man told her what he had changed her Instagram and Gmail passwords to.
He had already deleted her Bumble account, and she did not retrieve it.
They agreed to meet at a shopping mall at 9pm that day. When the man arrived, he briefly chatted with the victim before police arrested him.
The prosecution is seeking about six months to about eight-and-a-half months’ jail, as well as a S$4,000 to S$5,000 fine.
