A 19-year-old was sentenced to reformative training on Friday for vice-related and other offences. Ahmad Habiibul Hakim Assalafi, 19, went absent without official leave from national service when he committed 15 offences between Feb 18 and March 5 this year.

He had earlier pleaded guilty to six charges, including two counts of abetting customers to engage in commercial sex with a minor, and one count of causing grievous hurt.

Ahmad and his sister, Nuurul Aliyyah Abdul Talib, 23 who is now on the run, are the children of a self-styled religious teacher with 10 wives and 63 other children. He introduced his sister to work for alleged pimp Malcolm Graham Head, who has been charged together with his girlfriend, Veronica Patricia Rio, 18.

The court heard that it was his girlfriend, a minor who was 16 then, who had introduced him to Head while she was working for him as a prostitute. Hakim's duties as a "manager'' included escorting prostitutes to meet customers for paid sex, ensuring their safety and settling issues with problematic customers. In an incident on March 4, Hakim and his accomplices including Nur Azilah Ithnin, 20, beat up a customer, French product line manager Didier Moise Dominguez, 53, who suffered a broken jaw and a black eye, among other injuries.

On Friday Hakim's lawyer Tania Chin again asked the court to impose a jail term on the teen but District Judge Hamidah Ibrahim was reluctant to do so, saying she did not understand his preference for imprisonment.

Persons sentenced to reformative training undergo a strict regime of drills, counselling and vocational training. RTC is between 18 months and three years.