Man pleads guilty to posting photo of his wife having sex with her boss on Facebook

• A man was living apart from his wife when he stole her mobile phone
• She had kept intimate recordings and a photo of her having sex with her supervisor in it
• The husband then posted the image on Facebook and called the other man a “homewrecker”

SINGAPORE — A 27-year-old man, who went on Facebook and posted a photograph of his wife having sex with her work supervisor, pleaded guilty on Tuesday (Sept 21) to one charge each of theft and distributing an intimate image. 

The man, who was 26 at the time of the incident, had stolen his wife’s mobile phone and found the photo, along with two other video recordings, in it. 

The image later went viral and he took the Facebook post down, but reposted it again with her face blurred out.

District Judge Kessler Soh will consider two other similar charges for sentencing on Oct 1.

The man, who remains out on bail of S$15,000, cannot be named due to a court order to protect his wife’s identity.

The court heard that the woman, who is three years older than him, was in their matrimonial home on Feb 6 last year when the man arrived and asked to use the toilet. 

He no longer lived there after moving out in December 2019, though court documents did not state the reason why.

When he was done in the bathroom, he went to the master bedroom where his wife was using her mobile phone. 

He snatched her phone and fled. She ran after him but was unable to catch up with him. 

He had taken the device because he suspected that she was having an affair and wanted to look at the pictures and messages to confirm his suspicions.

He found a four-second recording, another 16-second recording, and the photo that he later posted. 

The faces of his wife and her boss were fully visible in the image.

He used his mobile phone to photograph and film these images, then returned to her home about half an hour later to give her back without telling her what he had done.

Six days later at around 8am, he uploaded the image in a public post that included her supervisor’s name and occupation. He described the other man as a homewrecker and warned people to be aware of him.

The accused also included photographs of the man, as well as screenshots of messages between the man and his wife.

An hour after the post went up, a friend of the supervisor told him about it, while the accused’s wife received calls from her friends.

At about 4pm, there were about 1,000 comments on the post and it had been shared about 2,000 times by other Facebook users. There were around 3,000 “likes” on the post.

The accused decided to remove it because it had received so much attention, but then decided to use the same Facebook account to upload the same photo — this time, with her face blurred out.

Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Foong Ke Hui told the court: “The accused claimed that he (put up the picture) because he did not want others to share the same fate as him.” 

He also wanted the public to know what the other man had done, DPP Foong said. 

This second post was removed one day later.

For distributing an intimate image, he could be jailed for up to five years, fined, caned, or receive any combination of the three.

For theft in a dwelling, he could be jailed for up to seven years and fined.