The teen pleaded guilty to five charges on Jan 9, including distributing intimate images, voluntarily causing hurt and theft in dwelling. -- ST PHOTO: KELVIN CHNG
SINGAPORE (The Straits Times/ANN): Between 2024 and 2025, an 18-year-old went on a “sustained campaign of exploitation and violence”, including sharing a girl’s nude photos and helping his friend forge an NRIC.
The teen pleaded guilty to five charges on Jan 9, including distributing intimate images, voluntarily causing hurt and theft in dwelling. He was 17 when he committed some of the offences and cannot be named as he is protected under the Children and Young Persons Act.
The court heard that on July 17, 2024, a friend of the teen added him to a group chat where nude photos of the female victim were shared.
The teen saved the intimate photos before they were deleted and posted them on a public Telegram channel he created later that month.
He also shared the link to the channel on his Instagram page with the caption, “Click here for exclusive content”.
The Telegram channel eventually garnered between 400 and 500 members.
He deleted the channel only when the victim told him that the authorities were aware of the leaked photos.
On Aug 8, 2024, the teen and his classmate stole about S$760 worth of items from Popular bookstore at Nex, including two Razer keyboards, a backpack and a laptop bag.
Only S$559.80 worth of items were recovered from the duo.
In September 2024, the teen helped the same classmate forge an NRIC.
Using a photo-editing tool and a picture of the latter’s NRIC on the Singpass app, the teen changed his classmate’s date of birth from June 23, 2009, to June 23, 2002 – to suggest that he was 22 years old instead of 15 – and also edited his NRIC number.
The classmate used the forged NRIC to purchase cigarettes and alcohol on three occasions between Sept 1, 2024, and Jan 8, 2025.
The classmate later made a police report on Jan 11, 2025, confessing that he had used a forged NRIC to make these purchases.
Kpod-related offences
In February 2025, the teen was in a conference call with two others while playing an online game. The two others were a 15-year-old boy and another boy identified as “B5” in court documents.
During the call, a discussion about Kpods – or etomidate-laced vapes – arose.
The teen’s father overheard the conversation and confronted him about whether he was using Kpods.
Following this, the teen and B5 devised a plan to cheat the 15-year-old of money.
“B5 devised a scheme to deceive the victim by falsely claiming that the accused’s father had disposed of the accused’s Kpods, allegedly valued at $500, attributing this loss to the victim for initiating the topic during their earlier conversation,” said Deputy Public Prosecutor Adelle Tai.
The teen agreed to the scheme, as he needed money to buy bicycle spare parts that cost $600.
B5 and the teen initiated another conference call with the victim. B5 demanded $10,000 as compensation to resolve the matter, and the teen reduced this to $1,000, which the victim agreed to pay.
Between March and May 2025, the victim made 15 payments to the teen, totalling $917.50.
The teen gave B5 $200 for his role in the scheme. The rest of the money was used for both of their daily expenses.
Some time in May 2025, the teen ganged up with three others to confront the same victim in their school toilet over a separate dispute about Kpods.
The teen had initially asked the victim to pay him $3,000, but the latter had been delaying the payment.
Said DPP Tai: “The victim was told to choose between stripping himself to expose only his underwear or to fight (one person in the group).”
The victim chose to strip, and one of the teen’s friends recorded a video. The victim was then told to kneel before them and apologise for delaying payment.
After the incident, the victim continued to delay making payment. The teen decided to use the video to threaten him to pay.
The victim then paid $228 to the teen.
The teen beat up the victim on July 28, 2025. Court documents did not state the reason for this.
On July 31, 2025, the victim’s mother made a police report over the extortion incidents.
The teen was arrested on Aug 1, 2025, and released on bail. While out on bail, he committed theft and affray. No other details were given about these offences.
His bail was revoked on Oct 9, 2025, and he had been in remand since then.
The prosecution sought a reformative training suitability report for the teen, but objected to a probation report owing to the severity of his offences.
“While the accused is young, his conduct represents a sustained campaign of exploitation and violence against other vulnerable and young victims,” said DPP Tai.
“His actions also demonstrate a concerning escalation in criminal behaviour, a lack of genuine remorse and a complete disregard for legal consequences, as evidenced by his continued offending while he was on bail.”
The teen will be sentenced on Feb 6. -- The Straits Times/ANN
