SINGAPORE – A 39-year-old man who had paid sex with a minor and filmed the acts without her consent was sentenced to 25 months’ jail on Jan 5.

Benjamin Huang Junlong pleaded guilty to two counts of sexual penetration of a 15-year-old and another two voyeurism charges. Eight similar charges were taken into consideration for his sentencing.

Based on Huang’s proceeded charges, his three victims were aged 15, 21 and 25.

He befriended the younger victims on money-for-love dating platform Sugarbook, and the oldest victim on dating application Tinder.

The court heard that the accused took an interest in the minor’s Sugarbook profile in December 2020, on which she had indicated her age as 19.

When they met, the victim confided in Huang about her family problems and told him she wanted to rent an apartment.

She told him she was working part-time at a restaurant to cover her expenses and had set up a Sugarbook account as she was financially strapped.

After meeting the accused twice, she ignored his messages and told him she did not wish to be in a relationship with him.

Huang then offered to pay her $1,800 a month for her companionship, on top of helping her with rent. The victim agreed.

They met at least five times between December 2020 and January 2021 for sex, the court heard.

On Dec 26, 2020, and Jan 11, 2021, Huang secretly filmed them having sex using his mobile phone. He kept the videos for his own viewing pleasure.

The accused met the 21-year-old victim in 2019. She told him she faced financial difficulties and was depressed.

Huang offered to be her “sugar daddy” and pay her for sexual services. She agreed.

He informed her he had a girlfriend, and that they would need to save each other’s particulars in their phone under a different name to avoid getting caught.

Between August 2019 and January 2021, they had sex on at least 10 occasions, and Huang paid the victim more than $16,000. He recorded them having sex on at least eight occasions using his mobile phone without the victim’s knowledge.

Huang got to know the 25-year-old victim in late 2019 or early 2020. They met on eight occasions to have sex.

While the victim agreed to having her sex acts recorded by the accused using his phone, she did not know he had installed a mini wireless camera on top of a television to record her.

He took eight videos of her using the camera on March 12, 2020.

In March 2021, he was arrested on suspicion that he had commercial sex with a minor. Court documents did not state how his offences came to light.

Seeking 26 to 32 months’ jail for Huang, Deputy Public Prosecutor Sruthi Boppana said his offences were premeditated, and he demonstrated persistence in recording his victims.

She added that he took the 15-year-old victim’s age at face value and did not take any steps to verify it with her.

The DPP said: “The victims were clearly identifiable as the videos featured their faces and the accused labelled the videos with their names. There is potential risk of significant harm being caused to the victims if the videos were leaked.”

In his mitigation plea, defence lawyer Andre Jumabhoy said his client had accepted the first victim’s claim that she was 19 years old as she had a tattoo, she bought cigarettes, and the minimum age to register as a member of Sugarbook is 18.

The lawyer added that Huang stopped contacting her after realising that she was a minor.

“This is not a case where the accused went around looking for young girls to have sex with, he signed up on an adult-only platform to look for consensual sex with like-minded adults,” the lawyer added.

Mr Jumabhoy said his client has proactively sought to improve his life since his arrest by focusing on work and spending time with his family.

For sexual penetration of a minor aged above 14 but below 16, an offender can be jailed for 10 years and fined.

For filming another person in a private act without his or her consent, an offender can be jailed for two years, fined and caned.