4 years 10 months’ jail for father of three who lured underage girls on Facebook for commercial sex

SINGAPORE — Even after girls did not respond to Angelo Anwyll Goh Hao-Yi’s requests for sex on several of his fake Facebook accounts, where he posed as other men, he did not give up.

The sales engineer created a female Facebook profile under the name Vacinta Koh and asked underage girls if they wanted to be a “part-time girlfriend” or escort for some quick cash. 

Posing as Vacinta, he also told them what they could earn for different sex acts.

Goh then pretended to be Vacinta’s client, picked the victims up in his black BMW and drove them to his landed home, a hotel or a multi-storey car park. 

Over about two years, he had sex with eight girls aged between 13 and 17 — all of whom did not know he was actually Vacinta.

On Thursday (Nov 7), the 34-year-old father of three was sentenced in a district court to four years and 10 months’ jail for his actions. 

He pleaded guilty to 11 charges of sexual penetration of a minor, commercial sex with a minor and making obscene films, with another 15 similar charges taken into consideration for sentencing.

Goh will begin serving his sentence in a week and remains out on bail as he wants to spend time with his children.  

WHAT HE DID

The court heard that Goh created the Vacinta Koh account around May 2016 and pretended to be under 20 years old.

He used photographs that he saved from an acquaintance’s public Facebook profile to make the account seem genuine. He also linked it to a fake Instagram account and linked his fake email address to a WeChat account.

After finding young girls whose appearances he liked, he sent them Facebook friend requests. 

He messaged those who accepted the requests, asking if they were interested in earning S$100 to S$200 an hour. 

He told them what the job entailed and that he could recommend some “nice clients” to them. 

If they were reluctant, he used several methods to persuade them. 

Still pretending to be Vacinta, he said that “she” was also working as an escort and could arrange for the girl to meet one of “her” regular clients first.

One of the girls, aged 14, told him that she had been raped before and shared other personal information. 

Goh expressed sympathy and replied that “she herself” had been raped.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Tan Pei Wei told the court: “‘Vacinta’ would also inform the girls that there was a stringent vetting process for clients, as they only allowed young, non-ugly and rich men who underwent regular health checks and that anyone who was rude or abusive would be banned from being clients.”

If the girl agreed, Goh would get them to meet “a client”, who was actually himself. When they asked for personal information of the “client”, like a phone number or picture, he refused to give it and explained that he wanted to protect everyone’s privacy.

The rates for different sex acts ranged from S$30 to S$100. The girls would be paid S$10 more if they wore a school uniform and S$20 more if they agreed to be filmed during sex.

He also advised them to bring their school uniforms instead of wearing them to meet him.

To further his scheme, he asked the girls to introduce their friends if they wanted money and warned them not to let anyone else know about their “jobs”.

He was arrested on April 2 last year and by then, he had 2,188 Facebook friends on his Vacinta account.

The authorities seized several mobile phones and a laptop from him and found that he had 23 obscene films as well.

The prosecution sought 60 months’ jail for Goh while his lawyer Daniel Atticus Xu asked for 48 months’ jail instead.

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

For commercial sex with a minor under 18, he could have been jailed for up to seven years, fined or both.