• A man could not accept his girlfriend's request for a breakup
• He continued acting like her boyfriend and demanded to know her whereabouts
• She eventually stopped responding to him and he started stalking her
• He also threatened to leak a sex video he had taken without her knowledge or consent
• He is set to be sentenced on Sept 6

SINGAPORE — When he could not accept that his girlfriend had broken up with him, a Singaporean man threatened to post their intimate photographs online unless she agreed to give him another “360 hours” of companionship.

Over the next two years, he continued acting like her boyfriend and was so controlling that she started feeling suicidal.

When she finally decided to cut off all contact, he stalked her for another three years and even accessed her Facebook account to post sensitive client data she had given him in relation to her work.

He also continued to threaten to leak a sex video that he had taken without her knowledge or consent, as well as screenshots of it, to her work superior, colleagues and family members.

On Thursday (Aug 26), the man — now aged 39 — pleaded guilty to three charges each of unlawful stalking, criminal intimidation and unauthorised access to computer material.

Three similar charges will be taken into consideration for his sentencing on Sept 6. He remains out on bail of S$15,000 in the meantime.

He cannot be named due to a court order to protect the victim’s identity, which extends to his name.

Court documents did not give the victim’s age.

360 HOURS

The pair began dating in 2010 when they were colleagues in the same company, the court heard. It was unclear why she did not want their other colleagues to know of their relationship.

She initiated a breakup about five years later but he refused to accept it and insisted that she give him another 360 hours of her companionship.

Court documents did not explain how he came up with this number.

She reluctantly complied in the face of his threats to spill the beans about their relationship and leak their photographs.

Between 2015 and 2017, he continued acting as her boyfriend and constantly demanded to know her whereabouts. She felt trapped and developed suicidal thoughts.

Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Gerald Tan told the court that she eventually asked him again for a clean break, but he refused, saying that she had not given the full period of companionship he had demanded.

In December 2017, the victim decided to stop responding to him altogether and he began stalking her.

From February 2018 to November last year, he called her at least 500 times. She received nearly 100 calls from him on some days.

She had blocked his number but he used mobile applications that disguised his phone number. He also subscribed to a mobile phone service that obscured his number on the recipient’s screen.

She picked up many of the calls because she worked in a client-facing sales role, which meant that it was common for clients to call her from unknown numbers.

On many occasions, the man would simply hang up or remain silent after she picked up his call.

She soon became terrified every time she received a call from a number she did not recognise, the court heard.

TAUNTED HER THROUGH WHATSAPP

Sometime between March and May 2018, he accessed her Facebook account after realising that she had forgotten to log out of it on his computer.

He changed the password and uploaded two photographs onto her Facebook page containing sensitive client data that she had sent him before they broke up.

Her employer investigated the incident and she received a warning for sending the data to him.

During the same period, he sent her a video on WhatsApp of them being sexually intimate in his home, which he had taken without her consent or knowledge. He also sent her nine screenshots from the video, in which she was nude.

He threatened to leak these to her direct boss and colleagues if she did not respond to him and sent her their contact details to prove that this was not an empty threat.

He also threatened to leak the video and screenshots to her relatives.

Court documents did not state if she responded to his taunts.

In June 2019, she left her office for dinner at 9pm and saw him approaching.

She ducked back into the office but he remained outside, asking to talk to her. He later followed her to a convenience store, loitered outside and continued to tail her.

She eventually called the police from her office around 12.30am that night but he left before officers arrived.

DPP Tan sought 14 months’ jail for the man, saying that he had acted maliciously and in a premeditated fashion in order to compel her to return to a relationship when she did not want to do so.

The prosecutor noted that the man did not suffer from a mental illness that would have impaired his judgement, and that there was at least one instance of “real and present physical danger” when the victim was trapped in her workplace for more than three hours.

For stalking, the man could be jailed up to a year or fined up to S$5,000, or both.

For criminal intimidation, he could be jailed for up to two years or fined, or both. He could also be jailed for up to two years or fined up to S$5,000, or both, for illegally accessing computer material.