Jail and caning for man over sexual offences against 4 boys below 15

A man befriended four boys between the ages of 12 and 14 before committing sexual acts on them - some in public places such as parks and the void deck of a block of flats.

Yesterday, the 26-year-old man was sentenced to four years and three months' jail, and ordered to receive six strokes of the cane.

The man, who cannot be named due to a gag order, pleaded guilty to six offences under the Children and Young Persons Act as well as to two counts of molestation.

Thirteen other similar charges, including two involving a fifth boy who was then 14 years old, were considered during sentencing.

The man met one of his victims, also a 14-year-old boy, in early December 2016 when the boy went swimming with three teenage male friends.

As a "godbrother" to the victim's friends, the man would top up the trio's phone credits, the court heard. The victim told the man that he also wanted to be his godbrother and they exchanged phone numbers. A few days later, he lured the boy to his Marsiling flat when no one was home.

While they were sitting on a bed, the man kissed the boy's face and performed a sexual act on him. The frightened boy told the man to stop but his pleas fell on deaf ears.

He subsequently invited the teenager to an Orchard Road cinema that month and when the movie started, he placed his hand inside the boy's pants.

On another occasion later that month, the man gave the boy a pack of cigarettes and a phone and asked the boy to perform oral sex on him. The boy refused and returned the phone.

The accused met his earliest victim, a 13-year-old boy, through Facebook in 2014. The man molested the teenager at the void deck of a housing block in Clementi the following year.

The man met another victim, then 12 years old, outside a Boon Keng Road fast-food restaurant in mid-2016 and touched the boy's genitals when the victim nodded off. Alarmed, the boy pushed his hands away.

The man got to know the fourth victim via Facebook in June 2016 and treated the 13-year-old to cigarettes and food. In March 2017, the pair were at East Coast Park at around 3am when the man touched the boy's private parts.

He committed a similar act that month at a park in Ang Mo Kio after treating the victim to fast food.

Court documents did not reveal how the man's offences came to light.

For each count of molesting a child below 14 years old, he could have been jailed for up to five years and fined or caned.