Serial offender Tan Boon Hwee pleaded guilty to a molestation charge and was sentenced to eight months’ jail on Aug 15. - ST FILE
SINGAPORE: A serial molester, who has a history of outraging the modesty of multiple women by touching their feet, is back behind bars after he committed molestation while under a remission order.
In 2023, Tan Boon Hwee, 36, was sentenced to more than 13 months’ jail over four counts of molestation before he was released in January 2024 and placed on a remission order.
As part of the order, he was supposed to keep himself out of trouble from Jan 23 to June 11.
Despite this, Tan targeted his latest victim in April 2024.
On Thursday (Aug 15), he pleaded guilty to a molestation charge and was sentenced to eight months’ jail. He must also spend another 36 days behind bars after breaching the remission order.
For his latest offence on April 18, Tan hatched a plan to commit molestation and carried a black marker with him when he went to a playground in Ang Mo Kio Avenue 3.
He approached a 35-year-old woman there and introduced himself as “Rio”, claiming to be a volunteer involved in student care who was helping a friend.
Assistant Public Prosecutor Lydia Goh told the court: “In order to induce the victim to remove her footwear and expose her feet, the accused falsely informed the victim that he had lost a challenge while playing a game. As a result, he had his slippers taken away.
“The accused further informed the victim that, in order to receive his slippers back, he needed to draw a picture of a ‘smiley face’ on the feet of five different persons and thereafter he needed to take a photograph of their feet.”
The woman complied and allowed Tan to use the black marker to draw on her feet.
After drawing, he touched and adjusted her feet before he snapped photos of them. He asked the woman if she wanted to be his friend but she turned him down.
The woman went home and found an earlier news article about Tan after she conducted an internet search.
She alerted the police and officers arrested him on April 22.
The APP said that while Tan had been diagnosed with conditions including chronic adjustment disorder, there was no contributory link between the mental illnesses and his offence.
For molestation, an offender can be jailed for up to three years, fined or caned, or receive any combination of such punishments. - The Straits Times/ANN
