22-year-old Teo Jun How was sentenced to 15 months and 4 weeks imprisonment on Tuesday (20 June) for obscene offences against 7 girls after pleading guilty to 9 charges, with 4 of them under the Children and Young Persons Act and another 3 for indecent exposure, according to The Straits Times.
The judge had earlier called for a report to determine if he was suitable to be sentenced to probation but was deemed on Tuesday to be unsuitable due to his serious offences.
What happened?
The court heard that in 2018 or 2019, Teo had joined a Whatsapp chat group of a boyband that was created by the two sisters.
He then got the younger sister’s number (she was about 11 or 12 years old at the time) and they chatted normally at the start.
The girl then got annoyed with Teo for teasing her and blocked him on Whatsapp.
Teo then messaged her on Instagram a few months later and asked her to meet him, which she initially refused before eventually giving in after Teo persisted with his request.
Their first meeting went without incident, but on their second meeting a few days later where they went to watch a movie, Teo asked the girl to perform an explicit act on him.
The girl refused but Teo still unzipped his pants and exposed his private parts to her, and the victim then left the cinema angrily.
Teo then followed the girl and apologised, before offering to send her home in a taxi, but on the ride home, he tried to get the girl to touch him once again.
In October 2020, when the girl was 13 years old by then, Teo contacted the girl again and offered her $100 to send him explicit photos of herself, but was rejected.
He then offered her $150 to expose herself on video, to which the victim agreed, and the two then exposed themselves on a video call, with Teo secretly recording the video.
Teo then targeted the girl’s 15-year-old older sister on 17 January 2021 at about 3.30 pm, calling her and asking her if she wanted to be his friend.
She asked him who he was but he kept quiet, before moaning and making other explicit noises during the call.
The girl then ended the call and Teo then texted her and asked her if she wanted to see his genitals, which the girl ignored.
He then told her about his exchange with her sister and sent her a recording of the conversation that he had with her.
She then told her sister about it and they told their mother about Teo, and a police report was subsequently lodged against him.
Teo was arrested on 24 January 2021 at his residence, and police found a thumb drive with 502 explicit videos, including 354 videos that involved children.
Teo was out on bail when he joined a WhatsApp group for students form a girls’ school to talk about their school life which he found through a link on a social media page.
He then sent filthy messages to several of the girls whose number he had gotten from the chat group.