SINGAPORE — Posing as a female social escort online, former national para-athlete Adam Kamis tried to recruit women, including a 16-year-old, for prostitution by promising a “high-paying freelance job”.

He would later interview them posing as a member of the agency and instruct them to perform sexual acts on him in his bedroom — sometimes on more than one occasion — to “test” their sexual abilities.

Although he successfully recruited 15 women over two-and-a-half years until he was arrested, he managed to secure just five clients because several women turned down assignments for various reasons. He did not receive any commissions.

The 37-year-old — who lost his right arm in a motorcycle accident in 2003 and became popularly known as “Adam Onearmrunner” — was on Monday (June 20) convicted of 11 charges of procuring or attempting to procure women for prostitution, and one charge under the Prevention of Human Trafficking Act for sexually exploiting a 16-year-old girl.

Twenty-two similar charges will be taken into consideration when he is sentenced on June 27. 

Adam faces up to five years’ jail and a fine of up to S$10,000 for each charge of procuring or attempting to procure a woman for prostitution. For the trafficking offence, he faces up to 10 years’ jail, a S$100,000 fine, and six strokes of the cane.

A district court heard that in early 2013, Adam set up an escort agency called SG Freelancers because he was in debt and needed to supplement his income.

Passing off as a female escort working for SG Freelancers, he recruited women via email, Facebook messages and advertisements, promising them the chance to earn “up to S$1,000” for every freelance assignment.

Adam would explain to applicants that the job entailed accompanying male clients, chatting with them and providing sexual services. Those interested were asked to complete a questionnaire, where they had to indicate the sexual services they were willing to provide. The women were also asked to send in photographs of themselves fully clothed and in lingerie.

Then, there was an “interview” held in the master bedroom of Adam’s home, where he would introduce himself as one of SG Freelancers’ “handlers”.

The court heard that some women wanted to meet in public places, but Adam declined, claiming that conducting the interviews at a “more private location” would “safeguard the agency and (the women’s) interests”.

He told them that as a “precautionary measure”, he had to “verify” their “ability to provide (the) sexual services” specified in the questionnaire. This involved stripping and performing sexual acts for him. Adam even asked a few women to return for further “verification” sessions, on the pretext that they did not perform satisfactorily in the first round.

He advertised the services of the women he had successfully recruited on various websites. The court heard that he had managed to get five customers between early 2013 and October last year, none of whom have been identified to date.

Pushing for a minimum jail term of 38 months, the prosecution charged that Adam wielded a sophisticated criminal enterprise with a meticulous recruitment process. Given that the vice operation encroached on a residential area, his offences warrant a harsher sentence, the prosecution said, because vice-related offences have the propensity to create social unease in the neighbourhood.

Pleading for leniency, defence lawyer Ravinderpal Singh said Adam’s ill health would make him unable to perform basic functions such as eating, showering and relieving himself while in prison. However, prosecutors countered that wider public interests negated any discount of a sentence due to his ill health. 

In 2009, Adam, who specialises in middle-distance events, bagged a gold and a silver medal for Singapore at the Arafura Games for athletes with disabilities. That year, he also won a silver medal in the men’s 800m run in the 5th Asean Para Games in Kuala Lumpur.