Repeat child sex offender, 30, jailed for asking 14-year-old schoolgirl for sex, touching her inappropriately

SINGAPORE — Xavier Lee Wei Jie, 30, met a secondary schoolgirl at a playground and molested her while making inappropriate remarks to her. They had been exchanging messages online before that.

Lee then asked the girl, 14, to perform a sex act on him and to follow him home, but she refused.

Lee, who is unemployed, was jailed for 10 months on Monday (Nov 15) after pleading guilty to one count of outrage of modesty.

Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Kathy Chu said that he had been taken to task before for sexual offences against a minor.

He was jailed for 20 months in 2019 for having underaged sex with a 15-year-old girl.

In 2015, he was jailed for 12 months for having underaged sex with a 12-year-old girl. Before that, he had served time for money lending offences and had jumped bail as well.

The court heard that Lee and the schoolgirl were at the playground in Bukit Batok on July 30 this year with another 14-year-old schoolgirl who had introduced the victim to Lee.

At the time, the two teenage girls were dressed in their school uniforms and Lee had known their ages. The two girls cannot be named due to a court order to protect their identities.

While the victim was doing her homework, Lee pinched her cheeks and touched her chin and hand, although she pushed Lee’s hand away each time.

Lee then told the victim, “You soon kena rape”, which the girl took to mean that Lee might rape her as she knew of Lee’s past sex crimes.

After that, Lee continued touching her, including brushing her chest. At one point, he stood in front of her and told her to perform a sex act on him.

Court documents did not state what the mutual friend was doing at the time.

The three of them left after an hour when the victim refused to accompany Lee home.

That night, the girl sent a message to Lee over social media platform Instagram, saying that she was uncomfortable with his actions.

DPP Chu said that Lee told the girl "he would not do anything from then on and asked if he could take responsibility by making her his girlfriend, and told her he loved her”.

The victim told her mother what had happened and they filed a police report the next day.

After the report was filed, Lee tried to urge the girl not to file a police report. “Say we playing,” he said in a text message to the girl, meaning to tell her that he was only joking.

DPP Chu sought a term of between eight and 10 months’ jail, arguing that there was “a strong need for specific deterrence” given Lee’s past sex offences committed against minors.

Lee, who did not have a lawyer, pleaded for leniency.

For outrage of modesty, he could have been jailed for up to two years, fined, caned, or punished with any combination of the three.