3 years’ jail, S$5,000 fine for man who harassed US singer

SINGAPORE — In his hands, the Internet became “a weapon of massive personal destruction” against his hapless victims, allowing him to make “a continuous, persistent and sustained assault” on them over six years.

Handing down the sentence for the Singaporean cyberstalker who developed an obsession with American singer Leandra Ramm and three other women yesterday, District Judge Mathew Joseph called it “a most disturbing case of online harassment and cyberstalking involving criminal intimidation”.

Colin Mak Yew Loong, 38, was sentenced to three years’ jail and fined S$5,000. The case, said Judge Joseph, is “a timely reminder that harassment laws need to keep pace with changes in technology and the pervasive use of the Internet and social media”.

That Ms Ramm endured six years of harassment also shows the need for adequate and effective protection for victims who are vulnerable until a harasser is convicted, he said.

Mak had admitted to 31 counts of criminal intimidation between 2005 and 2011. The prosecution had proceeded on 14.

In 2005, Ms Ramm had appeared on CNN and caught the attention of Mak, who then posed as the director of a prestigious music festival and contacted her with offers to champion her music career. When the 29-year-old singer stopped responding, he started sending death threats using emails and voice messages.

Mak harassed and intimidated another two women — both foreigners and musicians — from Hungary and Germany. He also admitted to intimidating a Singaporean businesswoman, trespassing St James Church, and stealing biscuits from the church’s kindergarten.

Yesterday, the judge laid out several aggravating factors of the case, which he said merited a stiff deterrent sentence.

First, Mak had made “vicious threats of violence and extremely vulgar email rants” against Ms Ramm that was tantamount to “mental assault”, and repeatedly committed acts of aggressive intrusion into her personal and professional life.

Also, his threats were inflicted on not one but three victims over an extended and prolonged period of time. They escalated in intensity from “I will hurt everyone” to “I will use a nightstick on you” to “your execution is near”.

Judge Joseph said Mak’s actions were deliberate and planned, and involved “sinister sophistication”, noting that he targeted foreign musicians.

He pointed out that offences over the Internet are easy to commit but difficult to detect, requiring extensive use of law enforcement resources for investigation and prosecution, and this has to be taken into account for sentencing.

Mak was sentenced to nine months’ jail for each of the 14 counts he faced, with the judge ordering that four of the sentences run consecutively to “reflect the overall criminality” of the offences committed.

The sentence is also meant to deter both Mak and other potential offenders, who might otherwise also be tempted to commit similar acts of harassment and criminal intimidation, he said.