Paedophile, 20, gets reformative training for underage sex with 6 girls, abusing little brother

• A Singaporean youth committed sexual offences when he was between 16 and 19 years old
• One of his victims was his younger brother, who was eight years old at the time of offence
• The youth mostly targeted young girls
• He was later diagnosed with paedophilic disorder with a high risk of reoffending

SINGAPORE — Over a span of three years, a man now aged 20 targeted at least six girls aged between 11 and 15, often meeting them for sex after school when they were still clad in their uniforms.

When he was 16, he also sexually abused his brother, who was eight at the time.

The accused cannot be named because he committed some of the offences when he was not yet 18. The Children and Young Persons Act bans the publication of the identities of such young offenders.

He was sentenced on Thursday (Sept 2) to at least one year of reformative training — a regimented rehabilitation programme for those under 21 who commit relatively serious crimes.

Offenders are given a minimum period that is subject to how they respond to the rehabilitation.

Following his arrest, a psychiatrist from the Institute of Mental Health (IMH) diagnosed him with paedophilic disorder that had no contributory link to his offences. 

The Singaporean pleaded guilty to seven charges of sexual penetration of a minor and one of molestation. Another nine similar charges were taken into consideration for sentencing.

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

HOW IT BEGAN

The court heard that he first struck in 2017 when he was 16. 

He began dating a 12-year-old girl, who was also his schoolmate, in March that year. Soon after they started dating, he took her to a public housing block near his Bedok home to perform a sex act on her.

The offence came to light when a teacher learnt from another student that he was engaging in sexual activity with the girl. The school then filed a police report.

This was around the same time that the accused abused his brother. While play-wrestling at home, the accused performed a sex act on him before they resumed playing.  

The accused revealed this incident during investigations for his “acts of sexual intimacy committed against other students”, the court heard.

Court documents showed that in January 2019, he sent a text message to an 11-year-old girl asking to meet for “date, hug, kiss lip, you know science teacher teach man woman”.

MANY OFFENCES IN 2020

Many of his offences took place last year when he was 19, with the first being in January when he contacted a 14-year-old girl on Instagram. She had posted a photograph and he found her attractive.

They met in person two days later, after she finished school. He asked to be her boyfriend and she agreed.

They met again later that evening, after she quarrelled with her parents and did not want to go home. He took her to a multi-storey car park in Bedok Reservoir and they had sex.

When she got home later, her parents demanded to know where she had been. She eventually spilled the beans, and her doctor made a police report after she underwent a medical examination.

The authorities began investigating the accused but he continued breaking the law.

In June, a 15-year-old girl — identified in court documents as “V3” — asked two friends to accompany her to look for the accused, whom she said was her ex-boyfriend.

The four of them went to a staircase landing in Bedok Reservoir to spend the night.

The accused found the group there and woke V3 up at around 12.30am, took her to another staircase landing and started to kiss her. She initially resisted his sexual advances but gave in because she was too sleepy to protest.

She then had sex with him for the first time.

One of the other girls — identified as “V4”, aged 16 — went to look for them and saw them having sex. She got angry because she did not trust him and had wanted to protect her friend.

She went to another staircase landing to try to cool down. He then showed up and molested her.

A teacher spotted the group at 7am and a police report was made later.

In the same month, the accused met an 11-year-old girl — identified as “V7” — and they had sex at a multi-storey car park and staircase landing. They had met on social media, either through Instagram or TikTok.

The girl broke up with him a month later after realising that he was also seeing other girls.

This offence came to light when she lodged a police report over another sexual assault and revealed that she had also engaged in sexual intercourse with the accused.

In an IMH report prepared by Dr Christopher Cheok, the accused suffered from several physical afflictions and had paedophilic disorder. He was not of unsound mind and was fit to plead.

His risk of reoffending was assessed to be high, since he had past antecedents of police warnings for sexual offences but continued to reoffend.

His intellectual ability was in the low-to-normal range, which would influence his ability to learn about the seriousness of his acts and their impact on the victims, but he was not intellectually disabled, the psychiatrist found.