15 months’ jail for man who committed sex acts with 12-year-old girl, chatted with another

• Izz Durrani Feroz pleaded guilty to two charges of sexual penetration of a 12-year-old girl
• He also pleaded guilty to sexual communication with a second 12-year-old girl
• After his first offences, he was diagnosed with fetishistic and paedophilic tendencies, his lawyer told the court
• He has been receiving treatment at the Institute of Mental Health
• Izz was sentenced to one year and three months’ jail

SINGAPORE — When Izz Durrani Feroz was aged 19, he befriended two girls on Instagram who were both just 12.

He got into a relationship with one of them, engaging in sex acts with her at a staircase landing and in a cinema theatre. As for the other victim, they exchanged sexual messages about their desires and fantasies.

Izz, now 21, was sentenced to one year and three months’ jail on Thursday (Nov 10) for his actions.

He pleaded guilty to two charges of sexual penetration of a minor under 14 and one charge of having sexual communication with a minor under 14. Thirteen other similar charges were taken into consideration for sentencing.

His victims cannot be named due to court orders to protect their identities.

The court heard that one of the girls befriended Izz on Instagram in January 2018. They exchanged contact numbers and “started a relationship” on Jan 9 that year, Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Samyata Ravindran said.

Izz knew that she was 12 years old then.

They decided to meet in person in March. He took the girl to a staircase landing of a Housing and Development Board block of flats in Pasir Ris.

They got intimate and started kissing each other. They then engaged in a sex act that was consensual, DPP Samyata added.

The next month, they met again at the Cathay Cineplex at Downtown East. While watching a movie, he performed a sex act on her and it was also consensual, the prosecutor told the court.

Court documents showed that they engaged in sex acts several more times from March to May, most of them in a flat in Bedok South.

Almost two years went by before the second girl befriended Izz on Instagram. He knew that she was not above 13 years old at the time.

She revealed that she was curious and decided to talk more with Izz, DPP Samyata said.

The girl’s father checked her phone on Feb 19 this year. He discovered that Izz and his daughter had exchanged messages about sexual desires and “foreplayed sexual fantasies with each other” through direct messages on Instagram.

He made a police report at Bukit Panjang Neighbourhood Police Post the next day.

Izz admitted to the offence upon questioning, saying that he had sent the messages in order to release his urges.

HAS FETISHISTIC TENDENCIES

In mitigation, Izz’s lawyers from Abbots Chambers — Ms Tan Shu Ling and Mr Gino Hardial Singh — said that he had no strong father in his life to mentor and guide him, and that his family members were seldom available.

He first went to the Institute of Mental Health (IMH) in January 2007 where he was diagnosed with mild mental retardation. His IQ was found to be about 70.

In 2014, when he was 15, he was diagnosed with fetishistic sexual tendencies and was referred for psychotherapy at IMH’s Child Guidance Clinic.

After his first set of offences in 2018, he was diagnosed with fetishistic and paedophilic tendencies. He then reported that he had self-imposed restrictions on his mobile phone to control his sexual behaviour and believed that medication was helping him.

He has been attending IMH appointments regularly since July this year, the lawyers added.

He works as a bellman in a hotel after completing his National Service.

The lawyers noted that for the second victim, Izz had not initiated contact and there was no coercion involved.

"Izz realises the gravity of his actions resulting from his lapse of judgement and has expressed remorse for his actions,” the lawyers added.

For sexual penetration of a minor under 14, he could have been jailed up to 20 years, and fined or caned.