We reported back in May that Singapore had outlawed, “revenge porn” and “cyber-flashing” — sending unsolicited images of one’s private parts. A local man was recently sentenced to 10 weeks in jail for violating the country’s revenge porn law.
In 2018, thinking they were in a relationship, a woman there allowed a man she was having sex with to take nude photos and videos of her. She also sent him pictures of her bare breasts at his request.
Unbeknownst to the victim, he already had a girlfriend.
After he had an argument with his then-girlfriend over her, he uploaded the victim’s nude photos onto social media platform Tumblr, telling her, “Good luck with your dignity” and “I’m destroying you again”.
Monday, the man, 26, was jailed for 10 weeks after he pleaded guilty to one count of criminal intimidation, and one count of ‘transmitting obscene pictures via electronic means’. A third charge of ‘possessing obscene films’ was taken into consideration during sentencing.
The man, who was working as a freelance deliveryman, and the victim had met online in June 2017. They started dating and had sex on multiple occasions but the victim broke things off early last year after discovering he was attached.
But on Nov 1, 2018, the man told her through WhatsApp that she was the cause of a dispute between him and his then-girlfriend. The victim apologised and said there was nothing she could do.
He threatened to upload her nude photos onto Tumblr if she did not help him to make things right. Feeling afraid, she repeatedly begged him to stop and to delete the photos.
Four hours later, the man uploaded three photos of the victim’s bare breasts to his public Tumblr page with the caption, “Want to know her, DM (direct message)”.
The victim filed a police report that day.
Citing the prevalence of revenge porn, Deputy Public Prosecutor Marissa Chok told District Judge Teo Guan Kee that general deterrence was the primary sentencing consideration and 10 weeks’ jail would not be crushing for the man.
In mitigation, the man, who did not have a lawyer, said: “I regret my actions. That’s all.”
In Singapore, revenge porn and “cyber-flashing” are punishable by up to a year in prison or a fine. If the recipient is younger than 14, it is punishable by up to two years in jail, a fine or caning.
The addition of revenge porn crimes is part of a major overhaul of Singapore’s penal code. Other new measures include outlawing marital rape, banning child sex dolls, and decriminalizing suicide.
Singapore’s nearly 150-year-old penal code was inherited from colonial ruler Britain and was last fully reviewed in 2007.
Read about Prisons in Singapore
2 Responses
This guy is a total douche. Has a GF and cheats ion her with another girl. She finds out he is attached already in a relationship and she stops seeing him so he puts her photos online.
I bet while he spends the next 10 weeks getting his shit pushed in while in prison he will be blaming everyone and anyone for his predicament (except himself).
Government officials in Singapore really love to cane people, this idiot was deserving of twelve of the best for what he did. Ten weeks in the utter hell that is a Singapore prison might teach him a lesson (even if I can’t guarantee that he will, as Karma put it, “get his shit pushed in” otherwise known as getting fucked up the ass by Bubba as Singapore prisons aren’t known for that) but a vigorous caning would have brought the message home to him that you can’t post nude pictures of your ex and post her phone number under the picture and get away with it. Hell, we should cane people like that here in the States!