Youth got girl with mental disability to be a sex worker

A recalcitrant offender was just 18 years old in August 2020 when he approached four underage girls between 12 and 14 years old to offer them money in exchange for sexual acts.

The girls turned down Mohamad Shobir Mushoddiq Mohamad Siddique’s offer, and he was arrested the following month.

He was out on bail in 2021 when he convinced his fifth victim, a 17-year-old girl with mild intellectual disability, to become a sex worker.

Separately, he also punched a pregnant woman’s stomach in January 2023. No harm was caused to the woman’s baby.

Shobir, now 21, was ordered to undergo reformative training for at least a year on Wednesday. He had pleaded guilty to seven charges for offences including assault and sexual communication with minors below 16 years old.

Young people under reformative training are detained in a centre and made to follow a strict regimen that can include foot drills and counselling.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Claire Poh said Shobir had earlier been sentenced to 21 months’ probation for house trespass/housebreaking.

Despite this, he did not learn his lesson and his current crimes represented an escalation in the severity of his offending, DPP Poh added.

On Aug 19, 2020, he sent an Instagram message to a 12-year-old girl, who told him she was in Secondary 1.

Shobir pretended to be a Sec 3 student and asked to meet her at Bedok Interchange. When she refused, he asked her if she wanted to earn $50 for a job that lasted a minute.

DPP Poh told the court: “The victim asked the accused what the job was about. To this, the accused asked the victim if she knew what sex was. The victim answered that she did not.”

Shobir then told the girl to perform oral sex on him in exchange for $50. He also sent her two pictures of his private parts. She told him to leave her alone.

That same month, he approached three other underage girls via Instagram and offered them cash in exchange for sexual acts.

One of them, who was 14 at the time, made a police report on Aug 29, 2020, and officers arrested Shobir at his home three days later.

He was out on bail in October 2021 when he met a mildly intellectually disabled girl and damaged her mobile phone when they quarrelled.

When she asked him for a new phone, he suggested that she become a sex worker to earn money and buy herself a new device.

The girl, who was initially reluctant, agreed to do so after Shobir persuaded her.

In November 2021, he went on online classifieds website Locanto and put up an advertisement with the girl’s mobile phone number, stating she was offering sexual services.

A 28-year-old man later reached out to the girl. She asked him to contact Shobir and the two men agreed for the girl to provide sexual services for $200.

After that, the man went to the girl’s home and transferred $200 to her. They entered a bedroom where Shobir was hiding inside a cupboard.

The older man was performing a sexual act on the girl when she expressed her discomfort. He later lost interest in her.

The girl transferred the $200 to Shobir who helped her to buy a new mobile phone.

Court documents did not disclose how his offences involving her came to light, but her father informed a social worker about the incident and the police were alerted on Jan 10, 2022.

Shobir was re-arrested three months later.

He was out on bail yet again when he quarrelled with a 23-year-old woman, who was then three months’ pregnant, and punched her abdomen twice on Jan 24, 2023.

She alerted the police soon after.