SINGAPORE — A gynaecologist today (Sept 10) pleaded guilty in a district court to having sex with a minor — despite knowing she was more than 40 years his junior when he met her for the first time.

Ong Theng Kiat, 63, pleaded guilty to two charges of having sex with a minor and agreed to have 11 other charges that included oral sex taken into consideration. Ong has temporarily stopped practising as a gynaecologist, as of July.

The court heard that Ong got to know the girl in 2011 through a dating website, when she was 14 years old, and he, 61. She had indicated on her profile that she was 18 as that was the minimum age required to register an account on the website.

Ong sent the girl a lengthy message and the pair then exchanged phone numbers and began texting each other. It was through these texts that the girl informed Ong that she was 14 years old. After he had asked her to meet up, the court heard that the pair eventually met four times in September 2011 and sometime early last year.

The court was told that at their first meeting in September, Ong drove her to Bukit Brown Cemetery, located along Lorong Halwa, where she changed out of her school uniform.

Ong told the girl that he was 40 years old and that his work was related to stocks. Later, he took her to a hotel where they had sex. He then asked her to take two morning-after pills.

Then early last year, Ong picked the girl up from school and proceeded to the cemetery, where they had sex in the backseat of his car.

Ong’s lawyers, Mr Subhas Anandan and Ms Diana Ngiam, submitted a psychiatric report to the court to show that there was a causal link between his offences and his major depressive disorder.

However, Deputy Public Prosecutor Sharmila Sripathy-Shanaz said that there were several aggravating factors, such as the wide age disparity, and the evidence that Ong had intended to engage in sexual activity from the first meeting.

She also pointed out that Ong had taken the girl to the cemetery for the trysts — which would be far from the public eye — and had given the girl contraceptives, which would not have been readily available to her.

Ong is likely to be sentenced on Nov 11. CHANNEL NEWSASIA