16 weeks’ jail for man who threatened to leak sexually explicit photo, video of teenager he met on dating app

SINGAPORE — Wanting to increase his chances of getting matches on dating application OkCupid, Sim Bing Rui created a fictitious persona named “Jay” with images of another man who he thought was “considered attractive by females”. 

Posing as Jay, he would ask the girls he connected with on the app to meet him in real life and film them engaging in sexual activity together with their consent.

In the case of a 19-year-old he met, he threatened to send sexually explicit content he had of her to a chat group on messaging app Telegram and share them with her friends unless she had sex with him.

For threatening to distribute such materials, the 25-year-old was jailed for 16 weeks on Friday (Nov 25).

Another charge of deceiving the teenager into engaging in a sex act with him was taken into consideration during sentencing.

His victim cannot be named to protect her identity.

Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Niranjan Ranjakunalan told the court that Sim had two accounts on OkCupid app — one under the name “Zavier”, which reflected Sim’s true self under a name his friends knew, and another under Jay.

On July 22, 2020, Sim connected with the 19-year-old using his fake persona and asked her if she was comfortable with engaging in a sex act with him. She agreed but told him that she was not comfortable going further to have sexual intercourse with him.

As Jay, Sim also managed to get the girl to send him a naked photo of herself and she sent one showing her face and her exposed chest. 

They then agreed to meet the next day.

Using a Telegram account with Jay’s profile, Sim told the girl that he was unable to meet because his parents were home and told her to meet Zavier — that is, himself.

As Jay, Sim also told the girl that he would visit both Zavier and her later and the girl agreed.

At Sim’s flat, they both engaged in a sex act. At that time, Sim asked if he could record what they were doing.

When she did not want him to film it, Sim showed her a message he received from Jay — written by himself on the sly — to say that Jay wanted to see the footage. She then agreed. She was naked and her face was recorded in the footage. 

Sim then filmed a second clip that lasted almost two minutes, of him and the girl engaging in another sex act. Again, the girl was naked and her face could be seen.

DPP Niranjan told the court that after that day, Sim stopped contacting the girl but he had told her that he would keep what he had recorded. As Jay, he told her that based on the first video he saw from Zavier, she did not "live up to his expectations".

When the victim asked him if he intended to share the first video with others, he replied "see how" and "see my mood", DPP Niranjan said. 

The victim asked him not to share the video but Sim did not delete any of the materials he had of her.

A couple of days later on July 25, 2020, Sim, under the guise of Jay, told her that he would delete the photo of her exposed chest and the first video of her that Zavier took if they had sex, or else he would share them with her classmates.

He later sent her the video and threatened that if she did not have sex with him, or have a threesome with him and Zavier, he would send the video to a Telegram chat group where people exchange intimate videos of their sexual partners.

DPP Niranjan said: “The accused threatened the victim because he wanted to cause the victim fear and alarm to get back at her for what he perceived to be an unpleasant sexual encounter and because he felt frustrated after having an argument with another female who had ignored him.”

During police investigations, the two videos Sim took of the teenager were found in his laptop. However, he had not shared any images or videos of her with anyone.

Sim’s lawyer, Mr B Rajendraprasad from Regent Law, told the court that Sim was remorseful for his actions and asked for leniency.

Sim could have been jailed for up to five years and been fined or caned.