S'porean male ex-cop, 40, jailed after dressing as woman to lure & molest male student

A male police officer, who dressed up as a woman and molested a student, was handed a sentence of three years' jail and four strokes of the cane on May 29.

Sharizal Shafi'ee had also lured two 15-year-old boys into performing sexual acts over video calls on separate occasions, which he filmed.

On May 29, Sharizal was sentenced after previously pleading guilty to five charges, which included the molestation, video recording and production of child abuse material, 10 other charges were taken into consideration for sentencing.

A gag order has been issued to protect the identities of his victims.

The offences took place in 2023 and 2024 while Sharizal was still with the Singapore Police Force (SPF).

The police previously told Mothership that following the incident, investigations were swiftly initiated and Sharizal was immediately removed from frontline duties.

Sharizal subsequently resigned from the SPF on Jun. 16, 2024.

Wore dress, headscarf and applied makeup

According to court documents, on Apr. 18, 2024, at around noon, Sharizal left his flat while wearing a long blue dress, a brown headscarf, and had applied makeup to his face.

He went to the back gate of a secondary school and approached boys asking for help to adjust his bra.

Two boys declined while the third agreed, believing Sharizal needed assistance.

The teen was later molested at a staircase landing.

Later that day, the victim filed a police report, and Sharizal was arrested on Apr. 28, 2024.

Sharizal was released on agency bail a day later; his handphone was seized and sent for a digital forensic examination.

Digital forensic examination uncovered numerous obscene voyeuristic videos

Court documents noted that following the examination, police found a 12-minute and 38-second-long video of a then-15-year-old male victim on Sharizal's phone.

The video filmed on Jul. 31, 2023, showed the naked teen in a sexual act with his face clearly visible.

Sharizal admitted to screen recording function of his phone to film a video call without the victim's consent and said he had pretended to be a woman called "Lisa" during their conversations on Telegram.

Sharizal had kept the video for his own viewing and did not circulate it.

Other recordings

According to court documents, the police found three other videos ranging from two to six minutes of another then 15-year-old victim.

The videos were filmed on Apr. 18, 2024, between 5:01pm and 5:19pm.

The modus operandi was similar, and the victim's face was also clearly seen in the clips.

Of the ten charges taken into consideration, the last was an amalgamated charge of voyeurism as Sharizal had recorded videos of 32 different men masturbating on 32 different occasions between Aug. 14, 2023 and Apr. 24, 2024.

High degree of sexual exploitation

In the submissions, the prosecution said: "Although there was no skin-on-skin contact, the degree of sexual exploitation was extremely high".

"The accused pretended that he was a woman who needed help, and using this pretext, lured the victim to a quiet staircase landing."

The prosecution added that the offence was "clearly premeditated" and that Sharizal had "targeted young male individuals with a pre-planned routine".

The prosecution submitted to the court a global sentence of 36 to 39 months' imprisonment and six to eight strokes of the cane.

Lawyer cites Sharizal's guilty plea and service to SPF

According to CNA, Sharizal's lawyer Sanjiv Vaswani argued caning was not warranted and argued for a jail term of 22 to 28 months.

Vaswani said the case lacked aggravating factors that would justify caning, such as the lack of distribution of obscene material and the fact that Sharizal was not involved in organised crime.

The lawyer also cited Sharizal's guilty plea and cooperation with authorities, adding that Sharizal had served in the SPF for 17 years.

Vaswani added that Sharizal had received awards and commendations, including an award from the Ministry of Home Affairs for his help during the Little India riot, reported CNA.

Deputy Principal District Judge Kessler Soh said deterrence through a substantial jail term and caning were needed to deter like-minded offenders, and found that the prosecution's proposals were appropriate.