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Ex-national shuttler Ashton Chen gets 28 months’ jail for preying on minor for sex

SINGAPORE — Around the same time he retired from the national badminton team and started coaching various secondary school students in the sport, Ashton Chen Yongzhao – once Singapore’s second-ranked singles shuttler and SEA Games bronze medallist – pretended to be a female on Facebook and preyed on girls to have sex with.

In sentencing Ashton Chen, District Judge Hamidah Ibrahim put weight on his premeditation and deception, as she noted his way of drawing out a victim “sounded predatory”.

In sentencing Ashton Chen, District Judge Hamidah Ibrahim put weight on his premeditation and deception, as she noted his way of drawing out a victim “sounded predatory”.

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SINGAPORE — Around the same time he retired from the national badminton team and started coaching various secondary school students in the sport, Ashton Chen Yongzhao – once Singapore’s second-ranked singles shuttler and SEA Games bronze medallist – pretended to be a female on Facebook and preyed on girls to have sex with.

After chatting up with various girls to ascertain how receptive they might be to talking about their sexual experiences, the then-24-year-old narrowed down on one target – a 13-year-old who happened to be in need of money.

The first time they met, they had oral sex. The next two times they met, he paid her S$80 to perform sexual acts on him.

Chen, who is now 28 and a final-year student at the Singapore University of Social Sciences (SUSS), was on Tuesday (July 3) sentenced to two years and four months in jail. His jail term starts immediately.

The victim could not be named due to a gag order.

In sentencing Chen, District Judge Hamidah Ibrahim put weight on Chen’s premeditation and deception, as she noted his way of drawing out a victim “sounded predatory”.

Rejecting the plea that he gave into temptation when the girl asked him out on the latter two instances, District Judge Hamidah said Chen took advantage of the fact that she needed money.

The court heard on Tuesday that Chen – a member of the national badminton team from 2000 to 2014 – created a Facebook account with the moniker “Qing Hong” sometime in end 2013 with the intention of chatting with other girls about their sexual experiences as a female.

Throughout his interactions with various girls using the fake account, Chen found that the victim turned out to be the most receptive to conversations regarding sexual matters.

While still pretending to be “Qing Hong”, Chen then told the girl about a man who was interested in her and asked if she wanted to get to know him. After the girl agreed, he logged into a different Facebook account, referred to himself as “Sotong” and began chatting with the victim as a male.

Soon after the initial introduction online, they arranged to meet sometime in early 2014 at a void deck in Tampines. Despite it being their first time meeting, the girl performed oral sex on Chen at a staircase landing nearby.

After they parted ways that day, Chen logged into his “Qing Hong” Facebook account to ask the victim how the meeting went. She expressed that she did not enjoy it. They eventually stopped chatting after a few weeks, and unfriended each other.

Around a year later, Chen came across her profile again on Facebook and, masquerading as “Qing Hong”, he added her again as a friend and started chatting with her on April 29, 2015.

Over several conversations between June 4 and August 26 in 2015, Chen continued to encourage her to meet the man whom she had performed oral sex on again. Chen did not heed the victim’s requests for “Qing Hong” to stop contacting her, and continued to contact her till early 2016.

The victim, whose family was experiencing financial difficulties, finally relented to Chen’s request to have sex on the condition that he would be able to give her money, noted Deputy Public Prosecutor Sruthi Boppana.

Chen agreed and paid the victim S$80 for sex at a multi-storey carpark in Simei.

The victim contacted Chen again sometime in July 2016 when she was in need of money, and struck a deal to perform oral sex on him at a staircase landing in Simei for S$80.

Court documents did not state how the duo’s arrangement came to be discovered, only that it was a police investigation officer from the Criminal Investigation Department who lodged a police report on April 10, 2017 upon receiving information that the girl had engaged in sexual acts in exchange for money.

Police investigations then found out about Chen’s “Qing Hong” account, which had accumulated 500 friends in the span of four years.

Chen could have been jailed for up to 20 years and fined or caned for each count of sexual offence with the minor.

Before the judge delivered the sentence on Tuesday, Chen told her that he would like to “sincerely apologise for the mistake” as he pledged to be a “better person” for society and his loved ones – his family and fiancee – who had been supportive during this “difficult time”.

“I (give my) assurance that I will not repeat such offences in future,” he added.

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