YouTuber Dee Kosh charged with sexually exploiting teenage boy, possessing obscene videos

SINGAPORE — Singapore radio deejay and YouTube personality Dee Kosh, whose real name is Darryl Ian Koshy, was hauled to court on Thursday (Aug 19) and charged with multiple sex-related offences.

The police first began investigating the 32-year-old about a year ago, after accusers on social media claimed that he had asked them for nude pictures and sexual favours.

Koshy now faces seven criminal charges in total. These include three counts of communicating with a minor under 18 to obtain their sexual services, one of sexually exploiting a minor under 18, and three for possessing and making obscene videos.

Some of the videos that Koshy allegedly possessed showed him performing sex acts with others. These were taken without the other party’s knowledge, the police said in a statement on Wednesday evening.

The police added that they received several reports of him allegedly offering money to a youth below the age of 18 in exchange for sexual services.

The incidents took place between 2017 and 2020.

After his arrest, the police found in his possession several obscene videos. 

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

Court documents showed that Koshy allegedly tried to procure the commission of an indecent act from a 15-year-old boy between March and June 2018, by asking the boy if he could perform sex acts on him in exchange for money. No other details were given.

He is also accused of separately offering two 17-year-old boys up to S$1,000 in July 2018 and August 2020, in exchange for them performing similar acts on him.

Further, he was charged with offering a 16-year-old boy up to S$2,000 in February 2017, so he could perform a sex act on the boy.

He was also purportedly in possession of 23 obscene videos in his flat along Woodlands Street 41 on Oct 5 last year, and made two such videos there titled “00001” and “00007” sometime between 2016 and 2017.

TODAY reported last year that at least four police reports were filed against Koshy. 

The alleged victims, some of whom posted screenshots of conversations with him, claimed that they had chatted with him via popular messaging application Telegram and in direct messages via Instagram.

At that point, Koshy went on leave from his part-time DJ job at radio station Power 98. Several firms who worked with him, including Chinese technology giant Huawei, distanced themselves from him after police investigations began.

He initially denied all allegations and hired a lawyer to send a cease-and-desist letter to one alleged victim, who took down posts containing the allegations. 

But two days later, he wrote in an Instagram post that he admitted that "there is truth to some of the things which are being said now, and I am sorry to the people I have hurt in the process”.

In an Instagram Story posted on his personal account on Wednesday evening, he wrote among other things: “It’s off to the races.”

He will return to court on Sept 15 and remains out on bail of S$20,000. He is represented by lawyers from Eugene Thuraisingam LLP.

If found guilty of sexually exploiting a young person below 16 years old, he could be fined up to S$10,000 or jailed up to five years, or both.

If found guilty of communicating for the purpose of obtaining for consideration sexual services of a minor under 18 years old, he could be jailed up to two years or fined, or both.

For making an obscene film, he could be fined between S$20,000 and S$40,000 or jailed up to two years, or both.

And for having in his possession any obscene film, he could be fined up to S$20,000 or jailed for up to six months, or both.

“The police take a tough stance against sexual crimes, particularly those that target vulnerable victims such as the young,” they said.

“The police will spare no effort in ensuring that such offenders are brought to justice to face the full brunt of the law.”

Koshy rose to fame after starting his YouTube channel in 2011, which now has more than 367,000 subscribers. In addition to his work at Power 98, he also co-hosted a night-time show on 987FM with Divian Nair in 2013.