YouTuber Dee Kosh jailed 32 weeks for soliciting paid sex acts from minors, making obscene video

SINGAPORE — YouTube personality and former radio deejay Dee Kosh was jailed for 32 weeks, or about eight months, on Friday (Aug 5) for sex-related offences, including offering money to underage males in exchange for sex acts.

The 33-year-old Singaporean, whose real name is Darryl Ian Koshy, had admitted in May to one charge each of communicating with a minor under 18 to obtain sexual services, attempting to sexually exploit a minor under 18, and making an obscene video.

Four other similar charges, including possessing obscene videos, were taken into consideration during his sentencing by District Judge Jasvender Kaur. The victims cannot be named due to court orders to protect their identities.

Koshy’s lawyer, Mr Johannes Hadi from law firm Eugene Thuraisingam LLP, sought a jail term of 2.5 months.

The prosecution sought five to eight months’ jail for Koshy, arguing on Wednesday that the YouTuber showed no remorse for his act. 

On Jan 26, Koshy published a 10-minute YouTube video while his case was ongoing. The prosecution argued that the video sought “to sway public sentiments in his favour”, which could amount to “sub-judice conduct”, referring to conduct that could prejudice proceedings before the court.

The video has since been taken down.

On Friday, the judge allowed a transcript of the video to be admitted for consideration during sentencing.

While delivering her sentence, District Judge Kaur highlighted that in the video, Koshy portrayed his actions as unintentional and claimed that he assumed one of the victims — identified as A1 in court documents —was 18 years old.

“This was a blatant lie,” she said.

The truth was that the victim, who was 15 years old, had told Koshy his age after the YouTuber approached him on Instagram.

Despite knowing this, Koshy suggested that they move their conversation to a secret chat on messaging application Telegram, which allowed Koshy to set a self-destruct timer that would lead to their messages being automatically deleted after 30 seconds.

Koshy then offered S$100 to S$250 to the victim to perform sex acts on him.

He also sought sexual services from another victim, A2, after the victim said that he was 17 years old.

The judge noted that in reply to A2, Koshy simply insisted that the victim was not underage. He brushed it off by saying to victim then: “It’s easier if you don’t see, lah. Trust me.”

District Judge Kaur also noted how, after A2 posted on Instagram in 2020 that he had been sexually harassed by the Koshy, the YouTuber initially claimed that they were wholly untrue. 

In a post on his own Instagram page, Koshy denied the allegations and said that he would be taking the necessary steps to clear up these matters.

Koshy even got his lawyers to issue a letter of demand threatening legal action against A2. 

The court previously heard that at the time of his offences from 2017 to 2020, his victims ranged from 15 to 23 years old.

Koshy used his verified accounts on social media channels to convince them of his identity. After briefly chatting and ascertaining their ages, he proposed moving their conversations to Telegram and invited them to a secret chat.

He also asked them for sexual services in exchange for sums of up to S$2,000.

None of the minors agreed to his advances, but he ended up secretly filming a man who had accepted the arrangement.

Anyone convicted of trying to sexually exploit a young person below 16 years old can be jailed for up to five years or fined up to S$10,000, or both.

In communicating for the purpose of obtaining for consideration sexual services of a minor under 18 years old, he could have been jailed for up to two years or fined, or both.

For making an obscene film, he could have been jailed for up to two years or fined between S$20,000 and S$40,000, or both.