SINGAPORE, Dec 28 — Thinking that his teenage ex-girlfriend was to blame for jokes about his private parts on an online gaming platform, a man more than twice her age sought revenge by sharing her personal particulars and distributing her nude photos online.
The 31-year-old Singaporean was sentenced to 30 months and five weeks’ jail with two strokes of the cane yesterday (Dec 27), after he pleaded guilty to a charge of distributing intimate images and a charge for sexual communication with a minor.
Two other similar charges were taken into consideration during sentencing.
Both the man and the girl cannot be named under a court order to protect her identity.
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The court heard that at the time of the offence, the man was 29 and was the ex-boyfriend of the girl.
Starting a relationship
In 2022, the teenager, who was then 14 years old, got to know the man through an online gaming mobile application called Weplay.
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He sent her a friend request, which she accepted, and he began inviting her to chat and play games together online.
Several days later, he asked for her personal mobile phone number and Instagram user name and they began a relationship.
Even though the relationship lasted around a month, the two chatted regularly and the man was also told by the girl that she was below the age of 16 at the time.
During that period, they would meet in person and he would also intentionally engage in conversations of a sexual nature online, where he would ask her to send him nude photos of herself.
Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Thaddeus Tan said that the man would assure her by promising that the photos would only be viewed by him and that he would delete the photos after viewing them.
The girl agreed and sent him five nude photos of herself without revealing her face.
Insisting that she should also see his private parts even though she was not interested, he sent her a nude photo of himself.
After she sent the nude photos of herself, though, the teenager felt stressed and decided to ignore the man’s messages.
She later blocked his number, bringing their relationship to an end.
After that, unknown people contacted the man via Weplay to tease him about his private parts. No other details were made known about why strangers were doing this to him.
Since he had sent the girl a photo of his private parts, the man assumed that it was the teenager who had forwarded his photo to others, even though he had no evidence, DPP Tan said.
Seeking revenge
Feeling angry and hateful, the man decided to distribute the girl’s nude photos online as revenge.
He also shared her personal particulars and photos of her face so that she was easily identifiable.
An unknown online user later contacted the man after seeing the leaked photos to ask who the teenager was to him.
The man then said that the girl was his ex-girlfriend and that her contact number was available as well.
DPP Tan told the court that the nude photos of the girl were leaked together with two videos of unknown females engaging in a sexual act to create the perception that the teenager was involved.
The discovery
A few days after her photos were leaked, the girl received a message from a stranger through Instagram.
This stranger informed her that her nude photos and personal details had been leaked online.
Feeling distressed, she decided to delete her Instagram profile and make a police report.
Police investigations revealed that apart from distributing the content online, the man had also distributed the nude photos in two chat groups that were used primarily for distributing pornographic material.
No effort has been made since to take down the girl’s photos.
After the incident, the girl began to develop a negative outlook on life as she became scared that people might identify her from the leaked photos.
She also started to avoid crowds and would wear masks to hide her identity when she was out and about.
‘A high degree of malice’
Seeking a jail term of 30 to 38 months and five weeks with at least two strokes of the cane, DPP Tan said that a strong deterrent message ought to be sent against the sexual exploitation of young and vulnerable victims.
He argued that the victim in this case was not only a vulnerable victim who was about half the man’s age, but the photos that were extremely intrusive and overtly sexual are now in the public domain and may remain there indefinitely.
“The accused was also motivated by revenge and included the pornographic videos to give a false impression that the victim was involved, which exhibits a high degree of malice and a calculated effort to maximise the embarrassment and harm to the victim’s reputation,” DPP Tan added.
Anyone guilty of sexual communication with a minor below 16 could be jailed for up to two years or fined, or both. For the man’s case, he could have faced up to two times the penalties.
For distributing intimate images, he could have been jailed for up to five years, fined or caned, or been given any combination of these punishments. — TODAY