SINGAPORE - A 20-year-old who had sex with two underage victims he befriended on Facebook was sentenced to reformative training on Thursday.
Full-time national serviceman Jonathan Chua Jia Loone was on probation when he committed three fresh charges of underage sex. Another five offences were committed when he was on bail.
He had admitted to three of of the eight charges of sexual penetration of two minors, both aged 14. The court had called for both pre-sentence and reformative training reports.
The first victim befriended Chua on Facebook in June last year. They exchanged their contact numbers and started to chat on the messaging platform WhatsApp.
During their second meeting, he took her to the handicapped toilet at Serangoon Community Centre and they had sex.
A few days later, they met again at Hougang Polyclinic. Realising that the queue was rather long, the two went to a 12th-storey staircase of a nearby HDB block to engage in sexual activities.
After Chua befriended the second victim on Facebook in September last year, he asked her to be his girlfriend but she declined.
He sent a picture of his private parts to her and she did likewise.
On Sept 18, they met at VivoCity. She knew that Chua wanted to meet her for sex.
He brought her to the toilet for the handicapped where he sexually abused her.
She made a police report about two months later while the first victim's case had been referred to the police in September by KK Women's and Children's Hospital.
Chua was placed on 18 months' probation in July last year for two similar offences.
Quoting from a probation officer's report, the prosecution said Chua's conduct in national service with the Singapore Police Force has been "less than exemplary". He was not forthcoming with the probation officer; has a pro-criminal mindset; knew of the consequences and thought the victims would not report him.
The prosecutor also highlighted aggravating factors such as an element of sexual exploitation in this case, and the fact that Chua did not use any contraception.
Chua could have been jailed for up to 10 years and/or fined for each charge of sex with a person under 16 years old.
