A 39-year-old Singaporean man was caught paying a 15-year-old "sugar baby" S$1,800 every month and had secretly filmed their intimate acts.
The man, Benjamin Huang Junlong, was sentenced to two years and one month in jail on Jan. 5, 2024, according to CNA and The Straits Times.
Girl had family problems
Huang first came across the victim's Sugarbook profile in December 2020, reported CNA.
She'd indicated her age as 19 since the website required users to be at least 18.
The two struck up a conversation on the website before moving their interactions to Telegram and eventually meeting up in person.
The girl, who was experiencing family problems, opened up to Huang, voicing her plan to rent an apartment away from home.
She revealed that she'd taken up a part-time job at a restaurant and had turned to Sugarbook as she was struggling financially.
'Financial aid'
After getting acquainted with Huang for a while, the girl began ignoring his messages, saying she did not wish to pursue a relationship with him.
At this, Huang decided to entice her with money.
He offered to pay her S$1,800 monthly, on top of her rent, in exchange for her "companionship".
The girl agreed, which resulted in them having sex at least five times between December 2020 and January 2021.
Huang did not verify the victim's real age.
He also secretly filmed their intimate acts multiple times.
Huang was eventually arrested in March 2021 on suspicion of having paid sex with a minor.
Not the only one
Investigations revealed that Huang also filmed two other victims in their 20s without their consent.
Huang met a 21-year-old woman on the same platform in 2019.
She was also facing financial problems and was suffering from depression.
They had sex at least 10 times between August 2019 and January 2021.
Huang paid the victim more than S$16,000 in return for her sexual services and secretly took a total of eight images and 17 videos featuring their sex acts.
Sometime during that period, Huang also filmed himself having sex with a 25-year-old whom he met on Tinder.
With this third victim, Huang hid a camera atop his wall-mounted television opposite the bed to record their intimate acts.
He obtained a total of eight videos, each about an hour long.
Man was not looking for sex with minors: Defence
The defence lawyer stated that Huang did not intentionally seek out young girls to have sex with, according to ST.
"He signed up on an adult-only platform to look for consensual sex with like-minded adults," the lawyer said, adding that Huang had stopped contacting the 15-year-old victim after discovering her real age.
The prosecution asked for a 26 to 32 months jail term for Huang, stating that he had recorded at least five videos of a minor and had offered to pay her, which "increases his culpability".
The prosecutor stated that Huang kept "a record that he watched again after the event [resulting] in the repeated invasion of the victims' privacy", said CNA.
According to CNA, the judge allowed Huang to begin his jail term on Feb. 13, 2024.
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