SINGAPORE: A man invited two children, aged eight and 11, living in the same block as him to his home and touched them inappropriately on multiple occasions.
He also filmed the eight-year-old while doing an indecent act on the child.
The 22-year-old Singaporean pleaded guilty on Tuesday (Nov 19) to two charges of sexually exploiting a child and one charge of possessing obscene films.
Two other charges of producing child sexual abuse material and possessing obscene photographs will be taken into consideration for his sentencing.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Melissa Heng told the court that the man was 20 when he committed the acts and cannot be named as it may lead to the identification of the victims.
The 11-year-old boy was identified as V1 and the eight-year-old as V2 in court documents.
The man first approached V1 in December 2022, but the boy ignored him.
When V1 chanced upon the man at the void deck again, the man persisted in speaking to him and followed V1 for a short distance.
Upon the man’s invitation, V1 went to the man’s unit on seven to eight occasions, where the man touched him inappropriately.
On one occasion, the man asked V1 to touch him but the child refused.
The man also hugged V1 at the void deck or staircase landing on about five occasions, which was witnessed by a neighbour once.
The man invited V2 to his unit on April 3, 2023 and took a video of himself touching V2 inappropriately and even told the child to “kiss for the camera”, upon which the boy gave a kiss towards the man’s mobile phone.
DPP Heng said the man kept the video for his own sexual gratification.
The man was arrested in his unit on April 27, 2023. Court documents did not state what led to his arrest.
Police seized two mobile phones from him. They contained multiple sexually explicit videos, including child sexual abuse material that he had downloaded from the internet.
On May 24, 2023, the neighbour who witnessed him hugging V1 told the child’s mother about the act. V1’s mother made a police report the same day.
DPP Heng asked for the man to be sentenced to 38½ months, or three years and 2½ months, in jail.
The prosecutor said deterrence and retribution are more important sentencing considerations than the man’s rehabilitation.
The defence lawyer, Harpal Singh, said his client had a challenging childhood and was diagnosed with adjustment disorder with anxiety.
Asking for his client to be given probation, Harpal said: “Probation would reform him in a constructive environment while avoiding the potential harms of imprisonment.”
DPP Heng told the court that reports from the Institute of Mental Health did not indicate that the man’s condition had a causal or contributory link to his offences.
Deputy Principal District Judge Ong Chin Rhu adjourned the hearing for Mr Singh to prepare further submissions on his client’s sentence.
The man will be back in court on Jan 6, 2025, for sentencing. - The Straits Times/ANN
