SINGAPORE – A 28-year-old man who raped three underage girls after offering to pay them for sex was sentenced to 25½ years’ jail and 24 strokes of the cane on July 27.
Edmund Tan Shi Hui had met the three girls online and engaged in multiple penetrative sexual acts with them on eight separate occasions over more than a year.
He offered the girls, who were then 13 years old, up to $500 each time.
In sentencing, Justice Andre Maniam rejected arguments by Tan’s lawyer that offences committed in the context of commercial sex with minors made him less blameworthy.
On the contrary, said the judge, commercial sex with a minor is an aggravating factor in an offence of statutory rape.
Tan had pleaded guilty to six charges of statutory rape committed between March 2022 and July 2023.
Another 10 charges – four of statutory rape, three of sexual assault by penetration, and three of sexual penetration of a minor below the age of 16 – were considered in sentencing.
At the time of the offences, Tan was between 24 and 25 years old, and worked as a waiter.
The first victim had posted an advertisement in a Telegram chat group stating that she was 16 to 18 years old and was offering her services in exchange for $200 to $300.
After he sent her a private message, she agreed to accept $100.
On March 4, 2022, after school, he had sex with the girl at a handicap toilet in Kovan MRT Station.
He then told her that he knew she was younger than her declared age and that he would not report her as he would get into worse trouble than she would.
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