SINGAPORE — After his girlfriend of seven years broke off their relationship, a man threatened to distribute intimate photos and videos of the woman to try to force her to take him back.

On Wednesday (June 26), Soe Yar Zar, 30, a Myanmar national, was sentenced to 14 weeks’ jail for his offences.

Appearing in court via a video link, he pleaded guilty to two charges of threatening to distribute intimate images without consent and one charge of criminal trespass.

Four other charges of a similar nature were taken into consideration for sentencing. They included an instance where he sent an intimate image of the woman to two of her friends.

At the time of his offences, Soe Yar Zar was working as a construction worker. The victim was a domestic worker.

The victim cannot be named due to court order to protect her identity. Neither her age nor nationality were stated in court documents.

Soe Yar Zar's sentence was backdated to his date of arrest on June 4 this year. He has been in remand since June 6.

WHAT HAPPENED

Soe Yar Zar and the victim were in a relationship from 2016 to 2023, court documents showed.

They had sex on several occasions and he recorded them in the act and took photographs.

On March 12 last year, the victim broke up with him and blocked him on Facebook.

That same afternoon, through messaging application Viber, he sent her an intimate video of the two of them performing sexual acts and demanded that she unblock him on Facebook.

About a month later, he went to the condominium where she was working and cried outside a residential unit, begging her to resume their relationship.

This led to the victim’s employer, a Singaporean man and his son, to escort Soe Yar Zar out of the condo and to warn him to stay away from the woman.

However, he persisted and visited the condo on three other occasions on April 23 and 30, and May 7 last year.

On one occasion, he followed the victim into the condo's compound despite being told not to do so.

The employer’s wife saw him and shouted at him before he fled the scene.

Sometime before May 26 last year, he also sent an intimate image of the victim to two of her friends, who later informed her that they had received the images.

About two weeks later, over an 80-minute period, the victim received a total of 16 intimate images from Soe Yar Zar when he asked to talk to her. The images showed the victim engaged in sexual acts.

He threatened to distribute the images if the woman did not pick up his call.

Upon discovering his threats, the victim’s employer filed a police report.

Court documents did not state how the employer learnt of the threats.

Soe Yar Zar was arrested on June 4 this year.

On Wednesday, Deputy Public Prosecutor Mark Chia sought a jail sentence of between 12 and 14 weeks for the offences of threatening to distribute the intimate images, and a short custodial term for trespassing into the condominium.

In mitigation, Soe Yar Zar claimed that he was drunk when he sent the intimate images and felt remorseful for his actions.

District Judge Wong Li Tein said that the offender had caused annoyance not just to the victim, but also to her employer.

Anyone who threatens to distribute an intimate image or recording without consent can be jailed for up to five years, fined or caned, or receive any combination of these punishments.