Man, 35, a S'pore PR, uploads ex-girlfriend's sex video online & claims account was hacked, gets 20 months' jail

A man uploaded a video of himself having sex with his ex-girlfriend onto pornography websites and claimed that a third party must have taken over his account.

Chan Kok Kit, 35, was sentenced to 20 months' jail after his case did not convince the court.

The Malaysian and Singaporean permanent resident (PR) has filed an appeal against the conviction and sentence.

A gag order was placed to protect the identity of the woman.

Woman was "shocked and terrified" after learning what happened

The woman testified during the trial that she was Chan's girlfriend from July to September 2022, according to CNA.

The relationship ended after she discovered he was married.

A month after they broke up, the woman heard from her colleague that a sex video of her had been leaked online.

She found the video on three websites on Oct. 30, 2022, after searching using her nickname and the area she lived.

The approximately 10-minute video showed the woman completely naked and having sex with Chan at his home.

She then lodged a police report the same day about a video of her having sex with her ex-boyfriend was leaked online.

Another police report was lodged after the woman discovered the video on five other websites, requesting the police to stop further circulation.

The woman said she was not aware of any video being recorded, and she never consented to any sexual act being recorded.

A WhatsApp conversation between the two in August 2022 showed Chan asking the woman if she ever filmed "making love" and if she had allowed her boyfriend to film "last time", to which she both replied "no".

Three days after the police report was lodged, the woman found the video on a website and took screenshots of it, where the video's title included the number of her block, which Chan knew.

The video was uploaded by a username the woman knew Chan used and included his name.

The timestamp of the screenshot also showed the video was uploaded five hours earlier.

The woman testified that she was "shocked and terrified" at what happened and feared that the video would circulate further.

She felt "mentally destroyed" by Chan's actions, leading to her suffering "lots of sleepless nights" and developing trust issues with men.

Activity on Chan's laptop showed user accessing the account

A senior forensic examiner at the Home Team Science and Technology Agency testified at the trial to analysing the activity on Chan's laptop.

While it cannot be confirmed that the files from Chan's laptop were uploaded to any websites, activity on the device shows that the user accessed the account in question, navigated to the upload function on the pornographic website, and opened the videos folder within the account.

The examiner confirmed that a video with the URL ending with "Singaporean+girl+(nickname of the victim)+from+(area where the victim lived)+)(her block number)" can also be seen.

Chan admitted in a statement to police that he tried to upload the video to three or four websites for "storage purposes" and to "remember the victim".

Chan said videos were uploaded for private storage

Chan, who represented himself and testified in his own defence, said he and the woman had a relationship on good terms in 2022, but it turned sour in October 2022.

He claimed that the two mutually consented to film sexual acts and agreed to visit sexual websites together when their relationship was good, but could not produce evidence of this as it was only verbally communicated.

Chan also claimed they shared and stored videos mutually, and said the video were uploaded on those websites for private storage and was not meant for public viewing.

Chan said both he and the victim wanted to store the video and not have it shown to the public, as a couple "will not agree to such a thing".

He admitted that he knew it was an offence to leak or distribute sexual videos.

He agreed he clicked on a Today article titled, "Man jailed 11 months, fined for uploading videos of himself having sex with women onto porn site", but said he "only read the entire title, but not the whole article".

Google searches were also found on his laptop on where to upload porn, such as "Best porn website to upload homemade video".

Chan claimed he wanted to upload the videos, but only for his private use.

He also admitted to accessing pornographic websites on his laptop and using search terms to find the video involving himself and the victim.

Chan said the police officer who took incriminating statements from him had used a harsh tone with him and posed leading questions.

Judge ruled Chan an evasive and unreliable witness

Deputy Principal District Judge Luke Tan ruled that the prosecution had proven its case beyond a reasonable doubt, describing Chan as an evasive and unreliable witness, who was "incoherent, inconsistent and gave incredible answers in court".

Tan found that no logical reason for Chan to upload the same video onto multiple websites if his only purpose was storage, with his claim that a third-party was responsible being contradicted by forensic evidence of his laptop.

In mitigation, Chan said he was a first-time offender and had a newborn child.

He maintained that the victim had consented to the recording, which he said was done openly with the camera mounted on a stand.

He complained that the police overlooked his statements, and that he had reflected on his wrongdoing and admitted to "committing some wrong".

However, he repeated his claim that the video's distribution was not from his account, and the victim had "pre-planned" the case.

Chan is on bail pending appeal, facing two other outstanding charges for possessing 29 obscene videos and taking photos of a woman's NRIC.

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