2 men sentenced for circulating ex-girlfriends' obscene material to friends and strangers

SINGAPORE — Two men who distributed nude photos of their ex-girlfriends to friends of the victims and strangers on porn sites were sentenced in court on Thursday (4 June).

B, 20, was given 15 months’ probation, while C, 21, was given a 14-day short detention order along with day reporting lasting nine months.

Both will also have to perform community service and obey by a time curfew.

C was ordered to continue with psychiatric treatment, while B’s parents were placed on a bond to ensure their son’s good behaviour.

Passed photos to victim’s friends

B pleaded guilty to three counts of distributing obscene material to persons under 21 years old, and one of distributing obscene material through electronic means, with 11 remaining charges of a similar nature taken into consideration for sentencing.

B entered a relationship with the victim, a 19-year-old woman, in 2014. During their brief relationship, the victim send B nude photographs and videos of herself before B abruptly cut off contact.

In 2018, B reconnected with the victim while the latter’s relationship with her new boyfriend was on the rocks. The pair made plans to visit the zoo in July that year. However, the victim reconciled with her boyfriend and cancelled this meeting with B.

Out of anger, B sent the victim a text on 13 July 2018, stating “sorry for what I’m about to do”. He asked the victim if she had heard of Tumblr. The terrified victim tried to call B but she was rebuffed.

Two days later, B opened an Instagram account and set up a Dropbox account.

B then uploaded 48 of the victim’s nude photographs and videos to the Dropbox account. The explicit material was shared with the victim’s friends, who had the weblink provided by him.

On 17 July 2018, B sent two obscene photographs of the woman exposing her breast to an Instagram account shared by the victim’s junior college classmates. He sent more photographs of the victim to her other friends over the next few days, asking if they “recognise that”. He revealed the victim’s name to a friend when asked.

Two days later, B created a Tumblr account and uploaded two photos of the victim exposing her breasts, which could be seen by the public.

In total, at least 12 of the victim’s friends and former classmates were sent links or explicit material which showed the victim - most of them were under 21 years old.

B’s lawyer John Koh said that his client was unable to control his “vindictive emotions stemming from the relationship”. He said that his client had learned a “bitter lesson” from the court case and that his parents would supervise him.

”He realises that he has made a mistake, but nevertheless he will continue to do his best to strive to be a better person in future,” said Koh.

Uploaded explicit material of ex online

C pleaded guilty to four out of 12 counts of distributing obscene material through electronic means, with the remaining taken into consideration for sentencing.

C, a full-time national serviceman, got to know his ex-girlfriend, who is of the same age, in 2008 when both were in primary 4. They started dating at 13 when both were in Secondary 1. In the course of their relationship, the girl sent him her nude photographs and videos with her face revealed. She had only consented for the materials to be viewed by him.

The relationship ended in 2014 when they were in Secondary 4. C’s poor treatment of his ex-girlfriend had contributed to the breakup, he admitted during investigations.

When he tried to reconcile with the victim several times, he was rebuffed and became disgruntled. He continued to view the obscene media from his ex-girlfriend.

The victim got into a new relationship in 2016. Unhappy with her new relationship, C decided to disseminate explicit videos and photographs of the victim on porn site Pornhub and online forum Reddit in October 2018. He created accounts on the sites for this purpose, using the victim’s photograph as the profile picture.

Over the next three months, C uploaded explicit material on 12 occasions. He gained over 200 subscribers on Pornhub and viewed them as “fans”.

C also solicited suggestions for future uploads. His videos and photographs gained thousands of views.

Lawyer Terrance Goh said that his client was depressed at the time of the offences and “not in the right frame of mind”. C had sought the attention and affirmation of his “fans” and uploaded the photos not with the intention to take revenge on the victim, said the lawyer.

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