Singapore jails China dad for 31 years for abusing girls in ‘sextortion’ scheme
- Machinery technician Lin Rongxin, 34, married with a child, pleaded guilty to several charges against 20 young victims
- Described by the judge as a ‘depraved sexual predator’, Lin pretended to be a younger man to trap, coerce and rape his victims – 15 of whom were aged 14-19
A man who preyed on 20 young girls and women in an elaborate “sextortion” scheme in Singapore was sentenced to 31 years in jail and a maximum of 24 strokes of the cane on Monday.
High Court judge Hoo Sheau Peng said she had “no hesitation” in calling 34-year-old Lin Rongxin a “depraved sexual predator”.
“He has harmed and affected lives, not just of the 20 victims but of their families. This most reprehensible of conduct calls for the most severe of punishment for the accused,” said Justice Hoo in her oral judgment on Monday.
Lin, a married man and father of one, had used a photo of a younger man to catfish teenage girls (meaning lure someone into a relationship via a fictional online identity).
After obtaining the victims’ compromising photos or videos, he would threaten them into giving him money or performing sex acts on him.
He also tricked victims into having sex with him under the guise of yet another persona. In one of the cases, he pretended to be the girl’s “saviour” by assuring her that he would settle the threats and demands from her blackmailer, which was also him.