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| Photos are for illustration purposes only |
SINGAPORE — A teenager who sexually assaulted 10 minors over two-and-a-half years was sentenced to reformative training for at least a year on Thursday (17 March).
The boy, now aged 18, was exposed after one of his victims publicly called him a “rapist” on Twitter in 2020. When investigated, the student was found to have committed 33 sexual offences against 10 girls, aged from 12 to 16, between July 2017 and February 2020.
He is addicted to porn at a very young age and that could have caused him to commit the offences.
The teen got to know the victims through school, mutual friends, or social media. He would ask them to visit him in secluded areas such as his flat or in the vicinity before sexually assaulting them.
The first victim in 2017
The teen got to know one victim, then aged 12, in 2017 after chatting with her on Instagram. She agreed to have sex with him as she thought this meant he recognised her as his girlfriend. The two began having intercourse, sometimes unprotected, once a month from June 2018 to January 2019.
2019 next victim
The teen befriended another victim, then 15, on Instagram in 2019. They began chatting daily and the teen invited her to his flat for a study session in August 2019. While the girl was reaching for her study materials, the teen hugged her from behind and began molesting her. He had sex with her without a condom. After the incident, this victim began hurting herself and attempted suicide by overdosing on her antidepressants. She was diagnosed with depression and post-traumatic stress disorder and reported feeling ashamed of her body.
Next underage victim
The teen befriended another victim, 14, also via Instagram and asked to tutor her in chemistry. The victim accepted and went to his flat. He then made sexual advances on the unwilling victim. He sexually assaulted another victim he met through Instagram, at the staircase landing of an HDB block, even after promising her they would not be having sex that day. This victim, 13, was eventually referred to psychologists for counselling.
One of the victims exposed him through Twitter
Exposed on Twitter On 21 June 2020, a girl created a thread on Twitter by posting a photo of the teen with the caption, “A rapist requested to follow me on Instagram, should I expose what he did to me?”. After seeing the thread, many victims reached out to this girl privately and shared their own accounts of sexual assault. These were later shared on the Twitter thread with the victims’ consent.
The victim in 2019 decided to step out and lodge police report
The 15-year-old victim saw the Twitter thread in June 2020 and realised there were others who had also been sexually assaulted. She decided to lodge a police report on the advice of her mother. In total, four police reports were lodged against the boy, including one from a witness who was part of a WhatsApp chat group created for the purpose of bringing together his victims
