SINGAPORE - After receiving information from Interpol that a Singapore IP address was linked to possible transmission of child sexual abuse material through instant messaging app Kik, the police traced the offence to Teo Yong Cong.

They established that the Singaporean business analyst who works in a bank was the user of the Kik account and found 3,011 obscene videos in his home.

Among them were clips of a toddler and a child specified as four years old engaging in sexual acts.

Teo, 33, was sentenced to one week's jail in court on Wednesday (March 23) after he pleaded guilty to one charge of possession of obscene films under the Films Act.

Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Yvonne Poon said in court documents that the police had received information from Interpol in Ottawa, Canada, on April 16, 2019. They contacted and interviewed Teo six days later.

Later that day, the police seized a laptop, a hard disk and a mobile phone from Teo's home.

Examination of the hard disk revealed that Teo was in possession of 3,011 obscene videos, of which nine - ranging from 19 seconds to 10 minutes and 31 seconds in length - contained child sexual abuse material.

Further investigations revealed that Teo had downloaded Kik in mid-2018, intending to use it to peruse advertisements for second-hand badminton rackets.

He joined several chat groups on the app, including "SGFun" from which he downloaded a pornographic image of a female individual performing a sex act on a young boy wearing a cap.

DPP Poon said: "Some time in November 2018, an anonymous user in the group requested images of child sexual abuse material in the chat. (Teo) sent the image to the user.

"It was this act which had led to the flagging of (his) IP address, and which would trigger the commencement of investigations against him later."

A few weeks later, Teo's Kik account was suspended, and he subsequently deleted the application.

Teo said he had started downloading adult and child pornography when he was 15 or 16 years old through BitTorrent and Free Net applications. He also accessed Tumblr and Telegram apps for the same purpose.

DPP Poon said: "He had downloaded this material for his personal viewing, and had also accessed child sexual abuse materials as he was curious about it.

"He estimated that he had downloaded about 600 videos pertaining to child sexual abuse over the years."

For possessing obscene films, Teo could have been fined up to $40,000, jailed for up to 12 months or both.

Earlier this month, a 54-year-old father of two who downloaded child abuse pornography almost daily over five years was jailed for 32 months.

He was caught with at least 46,946 electronic files containing child sexual abuse material and more than twice that amount of adult porn, in what the prosecution called "one of the most egregious cases relating to the possession of child abuse material".