Worker at S’pore Botanic Gardens jailed for showing obscene photo to boy

SINGAPORE — A gardener at the Singapore Botanic Gardens called out to a 13-year-old boy, saying he had “something” to show him.

Then, whipping out his mobile phone, Chua Ah Guan, 59, showed the Secondary 1 student a photo of a penis.

On Friday (May 19), Chua was sentenced to two weeks’ jail, after admitting to the offence of showing an obscene photo to a person below 21 years old.

The court heard that on Dec 23 last year, the victim — who cannot be named on court order — was walking towards Jacob Ballas Children’s Garden, on his way to a sports training session, when Chua spotted him.

He called out to the boy, and in Mandarin, said that he wanted him to see something. Upon seeing the photo of penis on Chua’s mobile phone, the teen yelled at him in Mandarin, “Pervert!”, and called for help.

A passer-by heard the call and approached the boy, who asked to report Chua to the police. By that time, Chua was already apologising repeatedly to the boy, but he was later detained at the Plant Research Centre in the gardens.

Investigations revealed that Chua had downloaded the picture of the penis from Facebook, and that it was one of 157 such images in his phone.

Chua had told investigators that he did not know why he had shown the image to the teen.

In sentencing the gardener, District Judge Kessler Soh said that obscene photos have “a tendency to corrupt”, and that “young children must be protected from the corrupting influences” of such photos.

Quashing the defence’s plea for a fine, he said that given the young age of the boy and the need for deterrence, a fine is not enough.

However, he also disagreed with the prosecution’s call for a four-month jail sentence, noting that what Chua did was “out of character”.

Comparing Chua’s case to the “notorious case of Joshua Robinson” — who was jailed six months this March for showing a six-year-old girl an obscene video, and four years in total taking into account other sex-related offences — District Judge Soh said that Chua’s culpability was lower.

He added that the image shown to the boy was part of the human anatomy, “and there was no evidence that it was related to a sexual act”.

Furthermore, when confronted by the passer-by, Chua did not persist, but apologised to his victim instead.

For showing an obscene photo to a child under 21, Chua could have been jailed up to a year and/or fined.