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Father of 2 jailed for downloading child sexual abuse material daily for years, amassing 46,000 files

SINGAPORE — At a time when his own children were young, Wong Ket Kok turned to the internet to find child abuse material daily over five years, downloading and watching it for his own sexual gratification.

Father of 2 jailed for downloading child sexual abuse material daily for years, amassing 46,000 files
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  • Wong Ket Kok amassed at least 46,000 files depicting children being sexually abused
  • One victim was a two-year-old girl
  • For the past five years or so, he had searched for and downloaded child abuse videos or photos daily 
  • The married 54-year-old Singaporean was jailed for two years and eight months

SINGAPORE — When his own children were young, Wong Ket Kok turned to the internet to find child abuse material daily over five years, downloading and watching it for his own sexual gratification.

He ended up amassing at least 46,000 files depicting children being sexually abused. One victim was a two-year-old girl.

On Thursday (March 3), the married 54-year-old Singaporean was jailed for two years and eight months. His wife turned up in court with him.

The sole proprietor of a renovation business pleaded guilty to one count of possessing child abuse material. Another charge of having more than 50,000 obscene films was taken into consideration for sentencing.

The court heard that a team of police officers, who were acting on information that Wong had downloaded child abuse material online, raided his home in July 2020.

He admitted during investigations that for the past five years or so, he had searched for and downloaded child abuse videos or photos every day using peer-to-peer software.

Such software allows computer users to find and share digital files. He would watch the material and masturbate.

When he began doing this, his daughter was 12 years old and his son was aged six. He admitted that he did not have any preference but said that he did not “watch boys or girls who are below four years old”.

The police seized a Dell laptop and 24 hard disks from his home for investigations. They found 164,000 videos and images containing adult pornography or child abuse, with a large number of the latter kind featuring prepubescent girls.

Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Louis Ngia told the court that some videos involved acts “that could only be described as torture”.

The children involved were between two and 12 years old, and this would be apparent to Wong by the file names alone, the DPP added. One of them was named along the lines of “toddler rape”.

The prosecutor argued for two-and-a-half to three years’ jail for Wong, saying that he had built a library for his own sexual gratification.

“This was not a moment of folly. It was persistent conduct — and a very depraved one at that,” DPP Ngia added.

Serious deterrence was also required because Wong could separate his depravity from his own young children whom he was nurturing.

“He clearly derived great sexual pleasure from these children (in the videos and photos) getting tortured, in a sense. The need for deterrence is clear as possession of this material is difficult to detect,” DPP Ngia added.

Wong, who did not have a lawyer, said in mitigation that he has to pay household bills every month and does not draw in income if he does not work, as he is a self-employed contractor.

“I regret what I did. It was my first offence. Please give me a chance and lighter sentence,” he added.

DPP Ngia noted that Wong was fined S$4,000 in 2009 for an offence under the Employment of Foreign Manpower Act, but that prosecution would not be relying on this.

In sentencing Wong, District Judge John Ng said he agreed that “general deterrence is paramount because of the nature of the offences”.

Those convicted of possessing child abuse material can be jailed for up to five years and fined or caned.

Related topics

court crime child abuse sexual abuse pornography children

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