A 31-year-old Singaporean man has been sentenced to 30 months and five weeks in jail, along with two strokes of the cane, after he pleaded guilty to distributing intimate images and engaging in sexual communication with a minor.
The man, whose identity is protected by a court order, targeted his teenage ex-girlfriend in retaliation for jokes made about his private parts on an online gaming platform.
WHAT HAPPENED :
According to the report, the man, who was 29 at the time of the offense, met the 14-year-old girl through an online gaming mobile application called Weplay in 2022. They quickly developed a relationship, and the man encouraged the teenager to send him nude photos of herself. In return, he sent her a nude photo of himself.
In 2022, the 14-year-old teenager met a man through an online gaming mobile application called Weplay. They became friends, chatted regularly, and played games together online.
The man eventually asked for the teenager’s personal phone number and Instagram username, and they began a relationship. Despite the teenager informing the man that she was below the age of 16, the relationship lasted around a month.
During this time, they met in person, and the man engaged in sexual conversations online, urging the teenager to send him nude photos. He assured her that the photos would be kept private and deleted afterward, as per the report. The teenager reluctantly sent him five nude photos without revealing her face.
Despite her lack of interest, he persisted in his demand for her to view his private parts and went so far as to send her a nude photo of himself. However, feeling stressed, she decided to ignore the man’s messages and blocked his number, ending their relationship.
Subsequently, unknown individuals contacted the man through Weplay to mock him about his private parts, but no further information was provided about their motives. The man assumed that the teenager had forwarded his explicit photo to others, despite lacking evidence for this claim.
After their relationship ended, the man believed that the girl had shared his private photo with others, although there was no evidence to support this claim. Feeling angry and hateful, he decided to distribute the girl’s nude photos online along with her personal details and photos of her face, making her easily identifiable.
The girl discovered that her photos had been leaked when a stranger contacted her through Instagram. Distressed, she deleted her Instagram profile and made a police report.
Police investigations revealed that the man had distributed the photos in various online chat groups that were used primarily for sharing pornographic material. The incident had a severe impact on the girl, causing her distress and a negative outlook on life. She became fearful of being identified from the leaked photos and started avoiding crowds, often wearing masks to hide her identity when in public.
The Deputy Public Prosecutor argued for a strong deterrent sentence of 30 to 38 months and five weeks, with at least two strokes of the cane. He emphasized the need to send a message against the sexual exploitation of young and vulnerable victims. The prosecutor highlighted that the victim in this case was particularly vulnerable, being half the age of the perpetrator, and that the explicit and intrusive nature of the photos added to the harm caused.
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Engaging in sexual communication with a minor under the age of 16 can result in a maximum penalty of two years’ imprisonment or a fine, or both. For distributing intimate images, the man could have faced up to five years’ imprisonment, a fine, caning, or a combination of these punishments.
