SINGAPORE, March 16 — In the space of about a year, a freelance tutor targeted three teenage boys to satisfy his sexual needs via gay dating application Grindr and classified advertising site Locanto.
Chock Soon Seng had already been jailed twice for sexually abusing young boys he befriended online — the first time in 2010, when he was a primary school teacher, and again in 2014.
This time, a district judge called for reports to assess the 43-year-old Singaporean’s suitability for corrective training or preventive detention, which are more severe forms of imprisonment.
Offenders sentenced to corrective training are unlikely to be given early release for factors such as good behaviour, while preventive detention is imposed only when the court is satisfied that a recalcitrant offender should be locked away to protect the public from him.
Chock has been in remand since his arrest in August 2019. He pleaded guilty yesterday to four charges of sexually penetrating a minor.
District Judge John Ng will consider 14 other charges, including sexual exploitation of a young person and possession of obscene films, during sentencing, which is set for April 9.
Before his arrest, Chock gave Mandarin tuition lessons to students from Primary 5 to Secondary 4.
In 2016, he started using apps such as Grindr and Locanto to meet other gay men for sex. He would arrange these meetings using messaging app WhatsApp and social network Instagram, periodically deleting messages that others sent him.
Two encounters with first victim
In April 2018, he befriended a 13-year-old boy through Grindr. The boy told him he was in Primary 6.
They took their conversation to Instagram and agreed to meet to perform sexual acts on each other.
Chock initially suggested that the boy come to his home, but changed his mind and met the boy near the boy’s home.
At a staircase landing of a multi-storey car park, Chock got the boy to perform sexual acts on him, before returning the favour.
Chock later told the boy to delete their Instagram conversation and persuaded him to meet again.
Two days after their first encounter, they went to a men’s toilet at Punggol Community Club and performed sexual acts on each other in a cubicle.
The boy later blocked Chock from contacting him, after he became annoyed at Chock’s request for his school’s Primary 6 Higher Chinese examination papers. Court documents did not reveal why Chock wanted them.
His crimes came to light only more than a year later, in June 2019, when the boy’s mother found conversations of a sexual nature on his phone. She reported the matter to the authorities on the advice of his school.
Other victims
At the same time that Chock met his first victim, he responded to a 15-year-old boy’s Locanto advertisement. The teenager stated that he was interested in looking for women.
When the boy told Chock that he was not interested in meeting him since he was not gay, Chock persuaded him to experiment with homosexual activities, saying it was “normal for straight men to perform sexual acts on one another”, the court heard.
Chock also told him that it was difficult for the boy to find women and offered to pay the boy to perform sexual acts. He agreed to meet Chock.
On April 23, 2018, Chock went to the boy’s home and they engaged in sexual acts.
He gave the boy a sum that was lower than what had been agreed. Chock said he had yet to receive his salary.
The boy later ignored Chock’s WhatsApp messages and blocked him.
Based on court documents, he kissed a third victim’s cheek and attempted to remove the 14-year-old’s underwear in June 2019.
After his arrest, Chock underwent a psychiatric assessment at Changi Prison’s Complex Medical Centre, where he was found not to be suffering from any mental illness at the time of his crimes. He was also not of unsound mind.
The authorities also found 52 obscene films on his laptop after arresting him.
For sexual penetration of a minor under 14, he could be jailed up to 20 years, and caned or fined.
For sexual penetration of a minor under 16, Chock could be jailed up to 10 years or fined, or punished with both. ― TODAY
