Man pleads guilty to indecent act with boy
Church volunteer met victim at student care centre where he was assigned to help Primary One to Four pupils study and play board games
A 20-year-old church volunteer was assigned to Primary One to Four classes to help pupils study and play board games with them. Instead, he performed an indecent act on a 10-year-old boy in church.
Yesterday, he was given 18 months' probation, 130 hours of community service, and has to undergo psychological treatment to address his sexual offending behaviour.
He must also remain indoors from 10pm to 6am every day.
The court heard the man, who cannot be named to protect the victim's identity, volunteered at the church's student care centre in November 2016.
He got to know the victim there in January 2017 and they chatted on Instagram.
The victim regarded the man as his sibling, and addressed him as "korkor", or elder brother.
In July, last year, he met the victim at the student care centre in the evening and took him to the second floor male toilet.
He asked the victim to enter the cubicle, where he closed the door and told the victim to take off his clothes.
The boy refused but gave in as the man persisted.
The man also stripped naked and groped the boy's private parts before performing a sex act on himself.
The victim made an excuse to leave the toilet and told his mother what the man had done to him.
She informed the director of the centre who then lodged a police report after conducting an internal investigation.
The man had pleaded guilty in March this year to one charge under the Children and Young Persons Act.
District Judge May Mesenas said it was hard to imagine what the victim had to go through.
She also asked the man's parents, who were present in court, to work with the probation officer to ensure safeguards be put in place to prevent him from being in close contact with young children.
The court heard the man is now attending another church.
Another charge of taking a nude photo of a boy, nine, last year, was taken into consideration during sentencing.
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