A 63-year-old teacher in Singapore was charged in court earlier today (10 February) with trying to procure an indecent act with a young person.
He had sent a WhatsApp message to a 14-year-old male student to use adult toys together and faced a charge under the Children and Young Persons Act.
The teacher was previously awarded with a Long Service Medal by the Ministry of Education and has worked at several secondary schools.
The names of the teacher and the victim were redacted from court documents and they cannot be named due to a court order protecting the identity of the victim.
The teacher had allegedly approached the 14-year-old boy on 28 November last year at about 10.50pm.
He was charged from his place of remand, with the prosecutor asking for him to be remanded at the Institute of Mental Health (IMH), which was rejected by the judge.
The man said that he is worried that someone untoward will happen to his elderly mother if she stayed alone with their maid, and was offered a bail of $20,000.
He was also ordered not to contact the victim or any young people in the same age group as the victim, with District Judge Terence Tay saying: “Do you have other students of that age? I suggest you do not be in any more contact with students of this age.”
The man was also told to see a private psychiatrist on his own or attend IMH to find out if he has any underlying medical condition.
He also told the court that he will be deleting all of his social media accounts, as well as the contacts of all the young students that he knew.
The teacher is set to return to court next month.