SINGAPORE: A man became addicted to child abuse materials after coming across a post online, and subsequently downloaded more than 400 images and 100 videos containing graphic child pornography.
On Tuesday (April 28), George Lee Ji Qiang, 23, was sentenced to a year and nine months’ jail and one stroke of the cane after he pleaded guilty to one count of possessing child abuse materials.
Another similar charge was taken into consideration for his sentencing.
He was arrested after officers from the Criminal Investigation Department (CID), acting on a tip-off, raided his residence in March 2024, just a month after he turned 21.
His phone, laptop, thumbdrive and an online cloud-sharing account were seized during the process.
Investigations later revealed Lee had downloaded a total of 548 such materials, comprising 100 videos and 448 pictures.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Benjamin Low said there were at least 117 child victims in the 100 videos alone, of which 112 of the children’s faces were clearly visible and identifiable. Some of the victims in the videos are believed to be under 10 years old.
Lee admitted that he had become interested in child pornography after coming across a post online around three or four years before his arrest.
Over the next few years, he browsed internet forums and became acquainted with other internet users who discussed their own interests in such explicit materials.
Some of the online users shared in Telegram chat groups encrypted links to access child pornography.
The court heard that Lee also searched for such materials by keying in search terms such as “little boy” and “little girl” in English and Chinese.
He also admitted to watching the child abuse materials he had downloaded.
Speaking to the court directly during his mitigation, Lee said he had suffered from low self-confidence after being bullied in primary school, and emphasised that he had been foolish to commit the offences.
He also pleaded for probation instead of jail, promising to comply with the terms and conditions of the sentence.
But DPP Low argued against a probation report being called, pointing out there was insufficient evidence to suggest Lee had taken active steps to show remorse.
The prosecution also said Lee had continued to download the child abuse materials over a sustained period when he was a polytechnic student, showing that he was able to compartmentalise the different spheres of his life while he was committing the offences. - The Straits Times/ANN
