Former army captain sentenced to jail for sexual acts against 15-year-old student

After the incident, Chaw sent a copy of the video to Toh at his request.

CHAW MET VICTIM AGAIN

Chaw later met the victim on his own on several occasions.

One such encounter took place at a shopping mall on Jun 5, 2024, where they entered a toilet for the disabled and engaged in sexual acts.

Chaw took two videos of the acts, one of which captured the victim’s face.

Chaw kept the videos on his phone. He later said he made and kept recordings of his sexual activities with others in what he described as his “personal collection”.

The victim’s mother and sisters grew concerned about his behaviour as well as the gifts he had been receiving from a man, which turned out to be Chaw.

When confronted, the victim told his mother and sisters what had happened before lodging a police report on Oct 23, 2024.

Toh was sentenced to 12 months’ jail last month.

SENTENCING ARGUMENTS

Deputy Public Prosecutor Maximilian Chew sought 17 to 21-and-a-half months’ jail for Chaw, noting that the offence of sexual penetration of a minor exists to protect a class of vulnerable people – minors under 16.

Defence lawyer Mark Yeo from Fortress Law said his sentencing position of 14 to 17 months’ jail was not far from the prosecutor’s.

However, for the charge similar to Toh’s, Mr Yeo said the sentence should be lower.

This is because Toh was the one who introduced Chaw to the victim and was the more active party in the car park incident, he argued.

The prosecution had argued that the car park incident involved “gratuitous degradation” as the victim was naked in the open.

Mr Yeo said the location had been selected “in discussion with the victim”, and it was Toh who asked the victim to strip.

Toh himself also stripped naked, said Mr Yeo.

In his mitigation plea, Mr Yeo wrote that Chaw had served as a regular in the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) for about 20 years since enlistment.

He has since left the SAF and works in a friend’s company in a role related to the food and beverage sector, said the lawyer.

Mr Yeo said his client also met the victim to “enjoy each other’s company” and have meals, walks or shop together.

He said his client “genuinely but mistakenly” believed that the victim was of age, but accepts that he should have verified this.

When the judge was about to pronounce sentence, Chaw wanted to speak but was told to do so through his lawyer.

Mr Yeo then told the court that Chaw wanted to highlight that the victim had lied about his age and sent over a fake photo of someone else in a Telegram chat.

District Judge Kenneth Chin acknowledged this but added that Chaw had not taken further active steps to ascertain the victim’s age.

He said the objective of the offence was to protect minors from exploitation, regardless of whether the minor is an active participant or initiator.

“Absence of coercion is a neutral factor and is not a mitigating factor,” said the judge.

He agreed with the defence that Toh had a slightly higher culpability than Chaw for their similar charge.

For sexual penetration of a minor, Chaw could have been jailed for up to 10 years, fined, or both.

For producing child abuse material, he could have been jailed for up to 10 years and fined or caned.

In response to queries from CNA, a spokesperson from the Ministry of Defence (MINDEF) said Chaw was suspended from all duties following his arrest in 2024.

“He has since been released from regular service and is no longer with the SAF,” said the spokesperson.

MINDEF added that SAF holds its service personnel to high standards of discipline and integrity, and service personnel who commit offences will be dealt with in accordance with the law.