Man jailed 24 weeks, fined for paying two 16-year-old girls for sexual services

SINGAPORE — A 32-year-old man who met two underage girls on social networking site Alamak Chat, and then paid for sexual services they had advertised there, was sentenced to 24 weeks’ jail and a fine of S$6,000 on Tuesday (Dec 10).

Mohammad Yunus Sakdun was about 25 years old when he committed the offences in 2012 and 2013.

In April 2018, a police report was made against Yunus for alleged attempted extortion. When the police were investigating this, they discovered that he had paid 16-year-old minors for sex.

It is unclear if either of the victims, who are now aged 21 and 22, made the police report, and no further details about the alleged extortion emerged in court.

The victims cannot be named due to a court order to protect their identities.

Yunus pleaded guilty in a district court to three charges of commercial sex with a minor under 18, and another charge of possessing 12 obscene films. Another five similar charges were taken into consideration for sentencing.

The court heard that the two girls, identified as Ms X and Ms Y, advertised their services on Alamak Chat in mid-2012 and early 2013. Both needed money and did not want to burden their families financially.

From June to October in 2012, Yunus paid Ms Y about S$70 to S$100 on each of the three occasions that she gave him oral sex.

Once, they met at the staircase landing of a public housing block on Henderson Road. He paid her S$100 then.

As for Ms X, she gave Yunus oral sex about five times from June 2013 to December 2014. He paid her about S$60 to S$70 each time.

Ms X stopped providing such services when she turned 19 in early 2016.

Yunus knew it was illegal to pay for sexual services from those under 18, but he did not check their identification cards when he met them, Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Gabriel Lim told the court.

When the authorities seized Yunus’ mobile phone, they discovered 12 obscene films and one film without a valid certificate from the Board of Film Censors.

In mitigation, his lawyer Kenii Takashima told the court that Yunus did not intentionally look for sex with underage girls, and that the “victims were not manipulated into the trade but advertised their trade online”.

Mr Takashima added: “(He was subjected to) physical and verbal abuse by his father, and a painful breakup when he was 21. This left him feeling empty and severely depressed, which led him to turning to unhealthy coping mechanisms such as viewing pornography.” 

For each charge of commercial sex with a minor, Yunus could have been jailed up to seven years, fined, or both.

For possessing obscene films, he could have been fined up to S$20,000, jailed up to six months, or both.