Jail, cane for blackmailing teacher
A married man who extorted $197,000 in cash and about $52,000 in valuables from a male teacher in exchange for his silence about their sexual encounter was yesterday sentenced to three years and four months in jail and three strokes of the cane.
Vincent Ng Hian Gee, 35, who formerly worked in sales but is now unemployed, had admitted to a charge of extorting $70,000 and a Chanel bag worth $3,900 from the 45-year-old teacher in September 2013.
Ng, who had seven other counts of extortion taken into consideration during sentencing, had threatened to disclose their sexual encounter to the authorities and the teacher's school.
The duo came to know each other through a Web portal in late August that year. In early September, the teacher, who cannot be named, invited Ng to his house, where they had sex. Later, Ng found out the teacher's occupation and started to harass him and demand large sums of money.
Fearing for his reputation and that he would lose his job, the teacher gave in to Ng's demands. Ng gambled away the money at a casino.
He has since paid back $24,000 and returned a Rolex watch, gold chain and gold pendant.
In another case, a 35-year-old former teacher who sexually assaulted a 12-year-old girl two years ago was jailed for 21 months.
Du Tao, a Singaporean, pleaded guilty to a charge of sexual penetration of a minor and a count of committing an indecent act with a child.
The girl was not his student. He had met her online, sent her sexually explicit messages and assaulted her at her home in Sengkang. The police got a tip-off and caught him there.
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