Judge chides man who makes ‘mockery of love’, ups sentence

SINGAPORE — A man was rebuked by a High Court judge for arguing that he had blackmailed his former lover by sending a video of their tryst to her family because he was unable to let go of their relationship.

Such an explanation makes a “mockery of what love is meant to be”, said Justice Tay Yong Kwang, as he upped the 42-year-old Bangladeshi’s jail sentence from five months to 11 months on Friday (Aug 26), on appeal by prosecutors.

The former lovers — they cannot be named to protect the identity of the woman, who was married with children at that time — met at an MRT station years ago and had a sexual relationship intermittently between 2007 and 2013.

When he returned to his country in 2014, their affair ended. He came to Singapore again a year later and tried to resurrect the relationship but was rebuffed.

In response, he blackmailed her with multiple videos of their trysts, threatening to send these to her family and neighbours. To back up his threats, he sent her screenshots of their contact details which he stole from her online accounts.

If she agreed to sleep with him, she could delete the videos, he promised. But he did not keep his word, and even filmed their sexual encounter on Jan 28 this year surreptitiously.

After repeated threats, the woman, a 38-year-old housewife, lodged a police report in April. Two days later, the man sent a video clip of their affair to her husband and daughter.

On Friday, Deputy Public Prosecutor Mohamed Faizal appealed against the five-month jail term imposed, arguing that the man had perpetuated a cycle of exploitation to “gratify his sexual desires”. “His actions were engineered to cause maximum distress to the victim, and to gravely jeopardise her marriage and familial bonds,” he added.

The prosecutor also noted that the man had claimed trial and only pleaded guilty on the first day of hearing.

He had even goaded her to take the matter to court, saying he could show the videos to her family and friends.

“(It) does nothing more than reaffirm that for the respondent, the matter was always one of brinkmanship, and that he had hoped that the victim would blink first,” he added.

The offender’s “cavalier attitude” underscored a smug belief that the potential public shaming of the victim offered him protection from the law, said Mr Faizal.

Defence lawyer S K Kumar, however, said the offence happened only “when (the relationship) turned sour, and one party wanted out but the other party wasn’t ready”.

Justice Tay shot down the portrayal of the man as a spurned lover, saying he was clearly manipulative and vengeful, and had committed “dishonourable and deplorable” acts.

He did not keep up his end of the bargain after the woman relented, which showed that his intention was clearly to “entrap and enslave her” for as long as possible, the judge added. It was “probably far worse” than extorting money, said Justice Tay.

“When his threats failed to elicit the same submission by the victim after some time, he carried them out in the most dastardly way by sending the video to her husband and her daughter,” he said. “It was plainly an attempt to distress and to destroy her family because of her audacity at defying him.”

Justice Tay added: “Describing the respondent as being merely a pitiful lovelorn man is to make a mockery of what love is meant to be. Love seeks the best for the one loved. It certainly does not seek to do evil by humiliating and destroying.”