SINGAPORE: He was around 14 years old and was a resident of a home when he performed an obscene act on a boy there in 2016.
Court documents did not disclose why the offender was sent to the home, where he continued to target four more boys in 2018 and 2020. One of them was as young as 12 years old.
Details about the home were redacted from court documents.
In May 2020, the offender was also found to be possession of 30 sexually explicit videos of boys below 16 years old.
He was ordered to undergo reformative training for at least a year on March 28 after he pleaded guilty to three counts of sexual offences involving three of his victims.
He had also admitted to one count of being in possession of child abuse material.
Seven other charges, including those involving the two other boys, were considered during sentencing.
Young offenders sent to undergo reformative training are detained in a centre to observe a strict regimen that can include foot drills and counselling.
The offender, who turned 21 in November 2023, cannot be named as he was below 18 when he started his crime spree.
He committed an obscene act on his first victim at the home in 2016. The latter’s age was not disclosed in court documents.
In May 2018, he repeatedly molested his second victim, then 12, who was his roommate at the time.
The second victim alerted the facility’s employees, who called the police the next day.
Court documents did not state what happened next but two months later, the offender targeted his third victim, then 14, and performed sexual acts on him.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Kathy Chu said that the victim, who did not consent to the acts, tried to push the offender away and told him to stop.
He shouted for help and a staff member at the home lodged a police report the next day.
Some time between July and August 2018, the offender molested his fourth victim, whose age was not disclosed in court documents.
On March 12, 2019, the offender was given a two-year conditional warning over his sexual offences, but this did not deter him from reoffending.
He was at the home in February 2020 when he molested his fifth victim, who was then 13 years old, and the police were notified three days later.
Separately, the court heard that the offender had chatted with an Instagram user in April 2019.
The latter, known only as Alex, introduced him to overseas Telegram users who shared sexually explicit images of children.
On the social media platform, the offender described himself in his profile as “18 and loves kids, especially primary school kids, because they are cute”.
When a social worker at the home asked him about it in or around April 2020, the offender claimed the description stemmed from his aspirations to be a childhood teacher.
The following month, the social worker went to the offender’s home to ask him about the Instagram accounts he followed that posted pictures of young boys.
The offender then admitted he had child sexual abuse material on his mobile phone.
Going through the phone, the social worker found that the offender had engaged in sexually charged conversations with other men and boys via Instagram.
The device also contained 30 sexually explicit videos of boys below 16 years old.
The DPP said: “The accused claimed that he was trying to discover his sexual identity at the time and was exploring his sexual attraction to children.”
The social worker alerted the police on May 15, 2020.
The offender’s bail was set at $20,000 on March 28 and he is expected to begin serving his sentence on April 1. - The Straits Times/ANN
