SINGAPORE, Feb 20 — While under investigation by the Singapore authorities, a 26-year-old unemployed man persuaded his 18-year-old girlfriend to sell nude photographs and videos of herself to make up for his gambling losses.

The Singaporean soon got the Filipina to provide increasingly invasive sexual services — giving phone sex, selling her used underwear and eventually, engaging in sexual intercourse.

He assaulted her when she expressed reluctance to continue doing all that, holding onto her passport to make sure that she could not leave Singapore.

He used the S$40,000 (RM121,942) she earned for their living expenses.

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His offences came to light when the authorities found her nude videos in the mobile phone of a man who was in a sex-themed Telegram chat group called SG Nasi Lemak.  

When the police took the girl into safe custody, the man went on the run and accused her of playing the victim.

The man, now aged 28, was sentenced to three years’ jail on Friday (Feb 19). 

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He also has to serve another 54 days behind bars because he had breached a remission order for similar offences.

He was jailed in 2016 for managing six young Singaporean prostitutes aged between 17 and 22.

From 2007 to 2016, he was convicted of various offences including theft, cheating and criminal breach of trust.

He pleaded guilty on Thursday to two charges under the Women’s Charter for knowingly living in part on the prostitution earnings of his girlfriend and managing the provision of her sexual services.

In addition, he admitted to one unrelated criminal breach of trust charge for misappropriating S$40,000 entrusted to him by a company director.

He cannot be named due to a court order to protect the identity of his girlfriend, now aged 20.

How it began

The court heard that he met the girl through an online dating application while he was in the Philippines in 2018. She was 17 at the time.

In January the next year, he asked her to join him on a trip to Singapore to meet his parents.

He asked her to remain by his side as he was concerned that the police could be probing him and if so, he needed her help to bail him out.

Court documents did not indicate the what probe during the period.

Nothing happened over the next few days and they returned to the Philippines.

It was during this period that he began losing money in the casino. In order to “make quick money”, he suggested that they sell nude photos and videos of her, as well as charge for live video calls of her performing sexual acts.

When she agreed to help him, he took the photos and videos himself, sending them to customers through mobile apps such as WeChat and WhatsApp.

The pair charged S$10 for four nude photos, S$10 for a minute of nude videos and S$25 for every five minutes of video call. The customers transferred payments to his bank account.

Managed bookings and advertisements

The couple went back to Singapore in April 2019.

He was then arrested by the police in relation to a separate unspecified offence and released on bail. 

The couple eventually rented a room to live together.

She agreed to his suggestion that she enrol in a school here so that she could remain in Singapore after her social visit pass expires.

Again, he suggested that she sell photos, videos and her used underwear for their living expenses since he was having difficulty finding a job.

He advertised her services on classified ads site Locanto, arranged bookings by customers to fit her school schedule and helped her to deliver the used underwear.

In May 2019, he persuaded her to begin giving sexual intercourse and other sexual services, saying that he needed more money to hire a lawyer for his criminal investigations.

He managed her bookings using several mobile phones, with many customers having previously bought her photos, videos or underwear. On some occasions, when she was busy, he pretended to be her while replying to their messages.

The customers paid between S$150 and S$1,000 depending on the sexual service.

Soon, he turned violent and hit her when she expressed reluctance to continue working this way. He also threatened to send her nude photos to her mother or post them on her social media account.

She reached out to his father and two customers for help. They all advised her to make a police report, but she decided not to because she did not want to explain the situation to her mother and did not wish for her boyfriend to get into trouble.

Between May and early October 2019, she had sex with 20 to 30 customers. She earned between S$9,000 and S$13,500 just from having sex with customers.

Used money to buy Rolex

On October 14 in 2019, police officers raided the couple’s rental room and took her in for questioning. She was then placed in a women’s shelter.

He absconded upon learning of this, getting a Vietnamese prostitute to register for hotel rooms on his behalf. 

Earlier, his friend had introduced him to someone else from Hong Kong who wanted to incorporate a company in Singapore.

The other man entrusted him with a United Overseas Bank account containing the firm’s monies, in exchange for his help on the incorporation.

While on the run, he withdrew S$10,000 daily from the bank account for his own use.

He used S$22,800 to buy a Rolex watch for himself and a gold bangle for the Vietnamese prostitute.

The man from Hong Kong soon realised what was happening and came to Singapore to file a police report.

The Singaporean was eventually arrested in a hotel room four days after the police raided his rental room. ― TODAY