Man jailed seven months for underage sex with girl of 13

SINGAPORE - A full-time national serviceman who had sex with a 13-year-old girl days after meeting her online was sentenced to seven months in jail on Wednesday.

Muhammad Shahrul Shah Saruwan, 20, committed six offences with the youngster either in his Woodlands HDB flat or nearby staircase landings.

Muhammad Shahrul is the fourth and last to be dealt for underage sex with the girl, who ended up pregnant and had to have an abortion.

Two other men, aged 21 and 23, had earlier each received a year in jail for similar offences. A third man, 20, was placed on 15 months' probation.

The court heard that Muhammad Shahrul had added the secondary school student as a friend on the Tango messaging app on May 25. The next day, he asked her to be his girlfriend and also have sex with him.

She agreed and their first four sexual encounters took place on May 30. For one of these, Muhammad Shahrul took her to his bedroom late at night when the rest of his family was sleeping.

They had sex again on June 4, after he sneaked her into his bedroom just after midnight. Muhammad Shahrul took her to a nearby playground around 4am, and she later took a bus home.

He could have been jailed for up to 10 years and fined for each count of having sex with a female under 16 years.

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