SINGAPORE: A man with a history of sexual offences involving minors befriended a young girl and positioned himself as a “father figure” after learning that she felt neglected by her actual father.
Paul Edison Tan, 42, then encouraged her to be physically close to him and took the opportunity at a cinema hall to molest the then-10-year-old girl.
Tan, who changed his name from Zander Xavier Chan in December last year, was jailed for 21 months on Thursday (Apr 16) and sentenced to three strokes of the cane.
The victim, who is now 12, cannot be named due to a gag order protecting her identity. The gag order extends to the specific circumstances under which she met Tan.
The pair met in November 2024, when the girl confided that she felt neglected by her father, who “never brought her out for leisure” because of his work commitments.
Tan decided to act as a “father figure” to the girl and obtained her contact number.
A few days later, he began asking her out one-on-one.
During their first outing, Tan picked the girl up from her home and took her out for a meal. At his prompting, they fed each other, and at the end of the outing, he drove her home and hugged her goodbye.
On Dec 3, 2024, after she agreed to meet him alone again, Tan took her to a cinema to watch a movie.
The hall was mostly empty, and the pair sat in a section with no one else nearby.
During the movie, Tan placed his hand on her thigh for an “uncomfortable amount of time”, the prosecution said.
