Married MHA officer jailed 6 months for stalking lover

SINGAPORE — He was married at the time, but that did not stop Adrian Goh Guan Kiong from carrying on an affair with a 25-year-old woman and sending nude photographs of her to her colleagues when the relationship turned sour.

For unlawfully stalking the woman, the 38-year-old officer from the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) was on Wednesday (June 29) sentenced to six months’ jail under the Protection from Harassment Act.

Goh befriended the woman at the end of 2011 during her university holidays and they entered into a relationship shortly after, even though he was married with three children.

A district court heard that their three-year affair was “strained and rocky” at times, because Goh thought that he was spending too much money on her. The victim cannot be named due to a court order.

Goh also felt insecure over her close ties with several male colleagues. Last year, she told him that she would be going to Kuala Lumpur with a male colleague, and he felt “resentful and upset”.

While having lunch at Causeway Point on July 31 last year, the victim handed her mobile phone to Goh.

Feeling betrayed by the victim over her upcoming trip, Goh went to the toilet midway through lunch and transferred four nude photos of her stored in his phone to hers. He then forwarded the photos along with lewd messages to a WhatsApp chat group that included her superiors and colleagues.

He then covered his tracks by deleting the photos and messages.

Assistant Public Prosecutor (APP) Thiagesh Sukumaran said that the pictures and messages were sent with an intention of embarrassing and humiliating the victim. He said: “The victim’s phone began to receive calls from her colleagues and (Goh) declined to answer any of them. A few minutes later, (he) sent the message, ‘Oops.. wrong chat group Ps (sic).’ 

A colleague then sent a message to the victim, asking if her phone was hacked or stolen. Goh replied, ‘Ps wrong recipient’, and the colleague believed that it was the victim responding to her. When the woman found out about it, she confronted Goh but he denied doing so.

Undeterred, Goh created a fictitious email account three days later and sent an email to her superior, claiming to have evidence of the victim having sex with her colleague — while in their work uniform — which was circulating online.

That same day, Goh also sent a letter to the woman’s father, falsely disguising it as a letter from the family’s church. In it, he wrote: “It had come to the church’s notice that your daughter is engaging in pre-marital sex, (with) not one (but) two guys. The church strongly (condemns) her actions and (is) also strongly disappointed with her actions, after it was known that she is going overseas to have sex with multiple sex partners.” 

He also urged her father to take the victim to listen to a church sermon on pre-marital sex, and said that the church may ask her to leave if she “persists in her folly ways”.

APP Sukumaran rapped Goh for his “diabolical” actions meant to “devastate the victim’s life” and tarnish her reputation. “(He) gave the impression that the victim was a woman of loose (character),” he said.

The victim told investigators she had countless sleepless nights after the incident. She went on leave for 10 days, and was hesitant to return to work.

In court and unrepresented, Goh painted a sorry picture of himself, saying that since investigations started, he has been suspended from work and two-thirds of his pay had been deducted. “I’m sorry for what I’ve done ... My family is suffering financially to the point that we don’t have enough money for our (three) children,” he said in a wavering voice.

In a handwritten mitigation letter, Goh said: “From this, I lost my career. My friends treat me like a leper and my family is suffering greatly, emotionally and financially.”

The MHA said in a statement that Goh, who joined the ministry in September 2000, has been suspended from service since Aug 28, 2015. 

“Following his conviction on June 29, 2016, we will be commencing disciplinary proceedings against him,” its spokesperson said. 

In passing sentence, District Judge Ow Yong Tuck Leong said Goh’s actions were deliberate and calculated, and the effects on the victim were long-lasting. “It’s easy to upload and circulate pictures with modern technology and a stiff sentence must be imposed to deter others.” Another charge of having 331 obscene films, found in Goh’s home, was taken into consideration during his sentencing.

In another case earlier this month, a 26-year-old man was jailed 12 months for stalking a teenager for about a year. He demanded and distributed her nude photographs. He was the first to be convicted of unlawful stalking under the Protection from Harassment Act.