Teen given reformative training after he committed sex offences against 5 underage girls

SINGAPORE - A teen was only about 16 years old when he convinced one of his classmates, a 14-year-old girl, to send him her nude pictures which he then threatened to distribute to others.

Following this incident, the youth, now 18, went on a crime spree and targeted four more underage girls, committing offences including molestation and sexual penetration against them.

He was out on bail last year when he returned to a life of crime and was involved in a fight in Woodlands.

On Wednesday (July 13), the youth was ordered to undergo reformative training for at least a year.

During that time, he will be detained in a centre and will have to follow a strict regimen that can include counselling as well as foot drills.

Under the Children and Young Persons Act, he cannot be named as he was below 18 years old when he committed some of his offences.

He pleaded guilty to two counts each of sexually penetrating minors and disturbing the public peace by fighting. He also admitted to a molestation charge.

Seven other charges were considered during sentencing.

The teenager started his crime spree when he targeted his classmate some time between October and December 2019.

On March 10, 2020, she went to Woodlands East Neighbourhood Police Centre and told officers that the offender had asked her for additional explicit pictures of herself.

According to the girl, the offender would "do something" to the ones she had earlier given him if she did not give in to his demands.

It was not stated in court documents what happened next.

However, investigators later managed to get hold of his mobile phone and found on the device a video of another girl, then 15, performing a sexual act on him.

Investigations revealed that some time between January and March 2020, this second victim was on social media app Instagram when she received a message from the offender on the platform. They started chatting and she told him her age.

Despite this, he invited her to his home and asked her to perform a sexual act on him.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Lim Ying Min said that the second victim, who was initially reluctant to do so, gave in due to his persistence.

The offender then used his mobile phone to record her committing the act.

Before leaving his home, the girl asked him to delete the clip and he replied that he would do so later.

Subsequently, he messaged the girl but she told him to stop doing so. The two teenagers then stopped contacting each other.

According to court documents, the offender targeted his third victim, another 14-year-old girl, in February 2020, and sexually penetrated her.

On June 9 that year, he responded to an Instagram story of his fourth victim, who was then 13 years old, and they agreed to meet.

The next day, the pair and two other friends met at a staircase landing of a block of flats in Jurong East.

The offender then molested the fourth victim when she was alone with him after the two friends had left.

He later asked if they could be "friends with benefits" - a colloquial term for a friend with whom one has occasional sexual encounters.

She turned him down and alerted the police on June 16, 2020.

On Dec 13, 2020, the offender met his fifth victim via Instagram and they started chatting on messaging platform Telegram, where she told him that she was 15 years old.

The two teenagers met each other for the first time for lunch in Ang Mo Kio three days later and he told her that he needed to go home to "collect his work stuff".

He asked her to follow him home and they took a bus there.

He sneaked the fifth victim into his room without his mother, who was home at the time, noticing.

The offender then had unprotected sex with the girl. The pair left the flat soon after.

In the weeks that followed, the girl messaged him on Telegram but he did not respond to her.

On Feb 22 last year, she told her school counsellor that she felt disappointed and frustrated with the youth.

The counsellor told the girl's mother what had happened and the police were alerted the next day.

Separately, the offender was involved in two fights.

The first fight took place at the void deck of Block 855 Woodlands Street 83 on Oct 16, 2020 after a drinking session.

The second one took place in Woodlands Ring Road after another drinking session while he was out on bail on Oct 25 last year.

For each count of sexually penetrating a minor, an offender can be jailed for up to 10 years and fined.