S'pore man, 32, gets jail & caning for sexually exploiting US girl, then 12, over video calls

A 32-year-old Singaporean man has been sentenced to five years and 11 months' jail for grooming and sexually exploiting an underage girl in the U.S. through video calls.

According to The Straits Times (ST), Sebastian Lye Chee Weng, 32, was also sentenced to three strokes of the cane.

It was further revealed that Lye was being investigated for sexually exploiting another minor during the same period.

The case

Court documents seen by Mothership revealed that Lye first met the girl on the online platform "Omegle" in October 2018 and befriended her.

Omegle is an online platform that connects strangers for text, video, and voice conversations.

The girl was 12 years old at the time.

Lye, then 24, had lied about his age, claiming he was 17 years old to gain her trust.

The two entered a relationship and communicated regularly on platforms including Instagram and Skype.

Court documents reveal that Lye sexually exploited the girl on at least 61 occasions between November 2018 and December 2019, requesting that she perform sexual acts during video calls, which he recorded and screenshotted.

Around the same period, Lye was separately investigated for sexually exploiting another minor, and officers raided his home in November 2018 in connection with that case.

He was eventually convicted in September 2020 and sentenced to over eight months' jail.

Re-offended while on remission

Following his release, Lye was placed on a remission order and was required to stay out of trouble from Mar. 20 to Jun. 13, 2021.

However, he did not comply.

In April 2021, about a month after his release, Lye conducted a video call with the American girl, who was then 14, and again asked her to perform a sexual act.

She complied, and he took at least two screenshots.

The following month, Lye threatened via text message to distribute intimate recordings of her to people she knew, after the girl had attempted to end their relationship.

The victim replied to his message, asking for Lye to leave her alone.

He passed several sexually explicit photographs of her to another individual on Instagram the following day.

The girl subsequently told her parents, and her father reported the matter to U.S. authorities, who then alerted the Singapore Police Force.

Over 12,000 files of sexually explicit material involving children found

When police raided Lye's home in April 2022, they found 12,755 files of sexually explicit material involving children.

In court, Lye pleaded guilty to multiple offences, including the sexual exploitation of a child.

In addition to his jail term and caning, he will serve an additional 66 days' imprisonment for breaching the remission order.

His lawyer also told the court that Lye has "depressive symptoms" and that there is a contributory link between his condition and the offences committed, ST reported.

Lye's bail has been set at S$20,000 and he is expected to begin serving his sentence on Jun. 19.