Residents on alert as man allegedly stalks children in Toh Yi

Residents of Toh Yi estate have been told to look out for a bespectacled man in his 30s who was first spotted in July chatting with children to get their telephone numbers.

A group of residents, who call themselves the Toh Yi Residents’ Network, put out an advisory after the man allegedly followed a young girl and her helper to their Housing Board block in the estate that same month.

Mr Derrick Tan, who chairs the network, told residents in the advisory that the same man had on separate occasions asked “a group of boys to buy things for him and tried to invite them to his place”.

Several residents received the information via a Telegram chat group, said Mr Jeff Escanuela, who has lived in the Toh Yi area since 2007.

Mr Escanuela, a 24-year-old university student, said: “I shared the link to the Telegram chat with my family members as I have a younger sister in secondary school. I just wanted her to be careful.”

 

Teachers at Pei Hwa Presbyterian Primary School, which is located in the Toh Yi estate, are also aware of the advisory, according to a staff member who declined to be identified.

The Straits Times, which visited the estate three times, was told by residents that the man was spotted at a playground near the school previously.

ST has contacted the school for comment.

The Toh Yi Residents’ Network alert has been shared on messaging platforms by several parents’ group.

In November, it prompted some parents to ask if the same man is involved in a Nov 5 incident at Thomson Plaza.

In a three-minute-long video shared on WhatsApp, the father of a young girl can be heard loudly questioning a man he accused of approaching his nine-year-old daughter to get her number.

The girl was alone at a claw machine in the mall at the time.

Some parents say the stranger bears a striking resemblance to the alleged stalker in Toh Yi estate.

The girl’s father made a police report, claiming his daughter was pressured into giving the stranger her telephone number.

The father said he confronted the man after his daughter told him about the incident. He then got the stranger to delete her number, and the man complied.

The stranger, who identifies himself in the video as John, can be heard telling the father he will not harass young girls.

He says he tries to make friends with a few young girls, and has a “sexual case waiting for investigations”.

“I really have no intentions but (I) just want to make friends,” John says in the video, adding: “I’m not going to make friends with young girls any more.”

 

In the video, the stranger can be heard promising the father that he will delete messages from other children.

The girl’s father had claimed in the police report, which ST saw, that there were messages in the stranger’s phone that suggested the man had tried to ask young girls out.

The father added that some messages were “teasing and uncomfortable to any parent”.

ST contacted John, who read out his number in the video, but he did not answer the calls.

 

Parents in the WhatsApp group also shared a screengrab of a message purportedly from a woman claiming to be John’s mother.

In the message, the writer says John had previously sought professional help.

She said: “Because of the nature of his conditions, his rigid and impulsive behaviour gets him into unnecessary trouble... Give us time to manage his problems.”

The woman also apologised to the parents of the nine-year-old girl for causing them distress.

Police confirmed a report has been made and said they are speaking to a 30-year-old man in connection with the Thomson Plaza incident.

They did not respond to questions about the incident in Toh Yi estate, and if the two cases involve the same man.