Singapore jails man for sending teen girls pictures of his genitals, grooming victims via social media
- Teo Jun How befriended girls as young as 11 through social media, sending them unsolicited pictures and offering to pay US$112 for nude video calls
- He was found to have more than 354 images of child abuse in his possession when arrested, the court heard. He received less than 2 years’ jail time
Teo Jun How also exposed himself to one of them and was found to have been in possession of more than 354 files of pornographic child abuse material, the court heard on Tuesday.
He pleaded guilty in January this year to nine sexual offences related to minors. Thirteen other similar charges were taken into consideration during sentencing.
The victims cannot be named due to a court order to protect their identities.
Around 2018 and 2019, Teo befriended a girl through a WhatsApp chat group and invited her out to watch a movie. She was aged 11 or 12 at the time.
While they were in the cinema, he asked her to engage in a sexual act. She refused but he unzipped his pants and exposed himself.
Feeling angry, she left the cinema. Teo apologised for his actions before offering to take her home in a taxi.
During the journey, Teo exposed himself to her again and tried to get her to touch him but the girl managed to pulled her hand away from him.
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Despite this, he tried to ask her several times to touch him but she refused.
Around October 2020, he contacted the girl who had then turned 13, and offered to pay her S$100 (US$75) for her nude photographs.
She refused and Teo suggested doing a video call and paying her S$150 (US$112) to show him her genitals.
She agreed and the two exposed themselves to each other during the call.
While this was happening, Teo used a screen recording application to record the video call without the girl’s consent.
A few months later, in January 2021, Teo called the girl’s older sister who was then aged 15 – having got her number through a WhatsApp chat group – and asked if she wanted to be friends with him.
When the sister asked him who he was, he responded by moaning and making other sexual noises.
She quickly hung up but Teo sent her a message asking if she wanted to see his genitals and told her that her younger sister had sent nude photos to him in exchange for money.
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He also sent her a screen recording of the conversation he had with the sister.
The 15-year-old later spoke to her younger sister and the matter was reported to their mother who went to make a police report.
Court documents prepared by Deputy Public Prosecutor Benedict Teong showed that sometime in 2020, two girls aged 15 at the time received direct messages through Instagram from Teo.
Going by the profile name “Jia_le”, he proceeded to send them sexually charged messages and a video of an unknown girl engaged in a sexual act with an unknown male who Teo claimed was him.
He also sent them photographs of his genitals.
In 2021, Teo joined a WhatsApp chat group called “cancelschool” created by a student from an all-girls school. He pretended to be a 15-year-old boy called “Jia Le”.
He contacted a few victims aged 12 to 14 at the time and variously sent them sexually explicit messages and photos of his genitalia.
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Teo was arrested at his home on January 24, 2021 after the police report was made against him and officers found a thumb-drive he had containing 502 pornographic videos.
These included 354 videos of child sexual-abuse content, which featured children who were 12 years old or younger.
These videos, ranging from a few seconds to 23 minutes, were sourced by Teo from various people over online messaging apps.
Urging the court to consider a probation report for Teo, defence lawyer Allison Foo said that without probation, the 22-year-old’s reintegration into society could affect his future since he is still young.
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Foo added that Teo is genuinely remorseful for his actions and is motivated to change his behaviour to keep himself from reoffending.
District Judge Kessler Soh disagreed with the defence, stating that probation is not an appropriate sentence given the severity of Teo’s offences.
The judge also said that had Teo been convicted at a younger age, he would be looking at reformative training instead of probation for his crime.
Reformative training is a regimented rehabilitation programme for offenders under 21 who commit relatively serious crimes, while probation is usually offered to first-time offenders between the ages of 16 and 21 and does not result in a criminal record.
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For sexual exposure to a person below 14 years of age, Teo could have been jailed up to two years and fined or caned.
For intending to insult the modesty of a person, he could have been jailed up to one year or fined, or both.
For being in possession of child abuse material, he could have been jailed up to five years and fined or caned.
Anyone guilty of sexual exploitation of a child or young person can be fined up to S$10,000 (US$7,450) or jailed up to five years, or both.
