Repeat child sex offender sentenced to 52 months' jail, cane for offences against girl, 13
Less than two months after his release from prison for aggravated molestation of a 14-year-old girl, a man struck again using a similar method.
Responding to a 13-year-old girl's post on online marketplace Carousell seeking employment, he said he could offer her a job collecting and distributing fliers.
But soon after they met, the man told her that other underage girls made extra cash by "do(ing) servicing". He also told her what they usually charged for various sexual services.
The victim then performed several sexual acts on him on multiple occasions.
On Monday (Feb 28), the man was sentenced to 52 months' imprisonment and six strokes of the cane for two counts of sexually penetrating a minor under 14 years of age and one count under the Children and Young Persons Act.
He was found to have paedophilic tendencies, according to an Institute of Mental Health report
The man, 30, who cannot be named owing to a gag order to protect the victim's identity, was also handed an enhanced sentence of 263 days' jail for breaching his remission order. It was the maximum amount he could have received.
A remission order allows an inmate to spend a portion of his sentence outside of jail. If the offender breaches the basic condition of the order, such as by committing an offence, the court may impose an enhanced jail term not exceeding the remaining duration of the remission order.
The man's remission order was to run from Sept 14, 2019, to July 22, 2020.
Noting that he will be asking the Singapore Prison Service to refer the man for counselling, District Judge Eddy Tham told him: "You have shown yourself to be a danger to society."
The judge added that the man had "really wasted no time in preying upon a young girl using a similar method", and had taken "advantage of her naivety and vulnerability to satisfy (his) lust".
The court heard that the man met the girl on Nov 3, 2019, after responding to her Carousell post a day earlier.
When he asked her which level of secondary school she was in, she said she was in Secondary 1. Around 8pm that day, he mentioned sexual services that underage girls provide.
He then unzipped his pants and she performed a sexual act on him. Afterwards, he asked her to be his girlfriend and she agreed. The pair met twice again that month and went to public spaces to perform sexual acts.
Deputy Public Prosecutors Timotheus Koh and Andrew Loh told the court that the accused had been convicted in March 2018 of aggravated molestation involving a 14-year-old girl he had contacted for a flier distribution job.
He was sentenced to two years and seven months' jail, and four strokes of the cane.
"This previous sentence has clearly failed to deter the accused from engaging in predatory behaviour," said the prosecutors.
The man's current sentence was backdated to Dec 28, 2019, which was when he was remanded.
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