27-year-old Lev Panfilov, a Singapore permanent resident from Russia who was a former actor for the Singaporean YouTube channel Wah!Banana, was charged on 16 May with raping a woman he had met from the dating app Tinder, according to Channel NewsAsia.
Panfilov was a creative specialist with Wah!Banana from May 2020 to May 2021, and is currently working at a recruitment agency as a consulting manager. according to his LinkedIn profile,
He had met up with the victim to work on her script over a meal, before heading back to his condominium where he allegedly assaulted her.
Panfilov is claiming trial for his 4 charges of molestation, assault and rape, and a High Court trial has been set for 12 days, with the prosecution planning to call in 14 witnesses to support their case, including an investigation officer who seized Panfilove’s underwear and bedding for investigations.
What happened?
The assault allegedly took place on 12 January 2021 after Panfilov met up with the 30-year-old woman from Tinder for the first time at a Robertson Quay restaurant, Wine Connection.
The woman was hoping to widen her social circle and meet new people through the dating app, and matched with Panfilov because his profile stated that he was a scriptwriter.
Because she was writing her own script at the time, the victim wanted to get some feedback and advice from him, and they met up and worked on the script over a meal until about 10pm when the restaurant closed.
Panfilov then suggested to the woman that they should go back to his River Valley condominium and she agreed, and they watched some YouTube videos and discussed principles of comedy while working on the script as they sat on his bed, according to The Straits Times.
The prosecution said that Panfilov then dropped his “facade of civility he had presented throughout the evening” and that he started showing his “true colours”.
He allegedly forced a kiss on the victim before molesting and raping her despite the woman not consenting to his actions and repeatedly asking him to stop.
After being finished with her, he then booked a private hire vehicle to send the victim home.
Following the incident, the victim started feeling pain in her lower abdomen and sought medical treatment, and she didn’t know if she should lodge a police report at the time.
She eventually reported the incident to the police after about a week after the incident, after her mother found her crying on 18 January 2021 inside her room.
She was brought to the KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital on the same day by her mother before they reported the incident to the police that same day.
Images source: @levpanf on Instagram