SINGAPORE - A polytechnic student was on Thursday placed on 24 months' probation for having sex with a 14-year-old boy last year.

Mohammad Ramdhan Samsudin, then 22, met the minor through Hornet, a mobile app commonly used by gay persons to get to know one other.

Their communication quickly turned sexual and after a few months of chatting, they met at a fast food restaurant in Causeway Point Shopping Centre sometime in March last year.

Mohammad Ramdhan led the boy to a male toilet cubicle at the nearby community centre, where they had oral and anal sex.

They broke off contact after that, but Mohammad Ramdhan was found out after the boy's school teacher noticed he was behaving differently and asked if he had any problems. The boy, now 15, made a police report on July 16 last year.

The court also ordered Mohammad Ramdhan, now 24, to perform 150 hours of community service. Under the conditions of his probation, the Republic Polytechnic student has to undergo counselling and improve his grades.

The prosecution did not object to probation as Mohammad Ramdhan's mother is terminally ill with liver cancer.

He could have been jailed for up to ten years and fined for having sex with someone under 16.