S'porean man, 42, gets 21 months' jail for molesting girl, 10, in cinema by acting as a 'father figure' to her

A Singaporean man, 42, molested a girl, 10, after acting like a "father figure" to her to get close to her.

Paul Edison Tan touched the girl inappropriately in a cinema after encouraging her to be physically close to him.

Tan had changed his name from Zander Xavier Chan in December 2025.

On Apr. 16, he was jailed for 21 months and sentenced to three strokes of the cane.

The victim is now 12 years old.

A gag order covers her name, as well as how and where she met Tan.

What happened

The girl and Tan met in November 2024.

She confided in him that she felt neglected by her father, who "never brought her out for leisure" because of his work commitments, according to the statement of facts of the case.

Tan felt he wanted to act as a "father figure" and got her contact number.

He asked her to go out with him one-on-one a few days later.

He drove her from her home to have a meal.

They fed each other food, an act initiated by Tan.

At the end of the meeting, he drove her home and gave her a hug to bid her goodbye.

Touched inappropriately

On Dec. 3, 2024, Tan took the girl to a cinema to watch a movie.

They sat in an area that had no one else nearby as the hall was mostly empty.

He placed his hand on her thigh for “an uncomfortable amount of time” and slipped his hand inside her shorts.

She felt very uncomfortable and immediately moved away from the touch.

He also fed her popcorn and put his arm around her shoulders for about half an hour during the film.

After the movie ended, Tan gave the girl a necklace and told her that it was "expensive".

Post-incident

The victim reported feeling uncomfortable and disgusted at what the accused did to her.

She also knew that what he did was wrong, but did not dare to inform anyone about the incident as she was embarrassed by it.

It was only on Oct. 28, 2025, almost a year after the incident, when she decided to confide in her teacher after going through a sexuality education lesson in school, where she was taught about sexual abuse, ‘good touches’, ‘bad touches’, and pornography.

When Tan was arrested, he lied to the police that he did not touch the victim’s private parts at all.

He also lied by stating that any contact with her thigh must have been accidental when he was picking up popcorn from her thigh using his fingers.

The girl did not suffer from any other adverse psychological effects, court documents stated.

History of sexual offences involving minors

CNA reported that Tan has a history of sexual offences involving minors.

He was previously jailed for 56 months.

As early as 2015, Tan had admitted to offences, such as organising travel and distributing information to promote commercial sex with minors under 18 outside Singapore, as well as transmitting obscene material involving young children.

He had 133 similar charges taken into consideration for sentencing previously.

In mitigation, Tan's lawyer said his client had not reoffended in the six years before the current offence, and had undergone counselling.

The judge took Tan’s criminal history into account during sentencing.

Those guilty of molesting a child under 14 can be jailed for up to five years, fined, or caned, or given a combination of punishments.

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