Online vice ring: Pilot is 31st man jailed

SINGAPORE — A commercial pilot today (Jan 10) became the 31st man to be jailed in the online vice ring case involving a 17-year-old girl.

Joseph Ong Chee Wah, 33, was jailed 12 weeks for having paid sex with the underage escort.

Ong, who is married with a young child and another on the way, is one of 51 men who were charged in 2012 over the case involving the same girl.

The court heard that Ong came across a website that offered escorts’ sexual services sometime in early 2011, and booked the girl’s services through her pimp, Tang Boon Thiew.

The website stated that the girl was an 18-year-old polytechnic student.

On Jan 23, 2011, Ong met the girl at Strand Hotel in Bencoolen Street 5pm and paid her S$630 for her sexual services.

In asking for a 12-week sentence, Deputy Public Prosecutor Kavita Uthrapathy pointed out that Ong had not taken steps to verify the girl’s age when he met her.

She also noted that as this was not the first time Ong had engaged in paid sex with escorts, he should have taken greater care in verifying the girl’s age.

In response, Ong’s defence counsel Ho Lifen said her client felt he did not have the authority to ask the girl for identification to verify her age. He also thought the website looked professional and did not expect minors to be engaged.

Ms Ho added that her client was remorseful about what he had done.

Ong could have been jailed for up to seven years and fined for paid sex with the underage girl. CHANNEL NEWSASIA