SINGAPORE (The Straits Times/Asia News Network): They were married when they started an affair. When she wanted to break up, he not only threatened to expose photos as well as a video of them having sex but also demanded that she leave her husband.
The 42-year-old man was jailed for eight months on Monday (July 9) after pleading guilty to one count each of criminal intimidation, performing a rash act and insulting a woman's modesty.
The married man, who is now separated from his wife, was not named due to a gag order to protect the girlfriend's identity.
The court heard that the 42-year-old girlfriend, who is a housewife, first met the man in 2011 and they entered into an intimate relationship the following year.
Some time in 2012 or 2013, he made a 23-minute video of them having sex without her consent, the court was told.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Sruthi Boppana said that the girlfriend found out in late 2013 that he was having affairs with other women and they fought.
When she wanted to end the relationship in 2014, he threatened to post photographs of them being intimate onto the Internet.
DPP Sruthi said: "The accused threatened to do so by engaging people from overseas so as to avoid detection. Over the course of the years that followed, the accused would repeat the threats each time the victim sought to initiate a break-up. The victim would then continue to stay on with him, fearing the repercussions."
She added that the frequency of these threats intensified towards the second half of 2016.
"The accused had set the end of 2016 as a deadline by which point he expected the victim to leave her husband and be with him. The victim did not wish to leave her family and felt stuck as she could not see a way to end her relationship with the accused," said the DPP.
In July 2016, the woman checked the man's mobile phone and found a video of him engaging in sexual acts with another woman.
She confronted the man, who flew into a rage and pushed her onto a bed. He then flung a half-filled 1.5-litre plastic bottle at her but she managed to dodge it. It bounced off a wall and hit her right eye.
Besides this, the court heard that the man would routinely threaten to expose their relationship between June and November 2016. He said he would release the sex video to her family, friends and the people at her children's school.
DPP Sruthi said: "The victim was immensely fearful that the accused would act on his threats, make the video public and cause harm to her family."
She finally alerted the police on Dec 13, 2016. - The Straits Times/Asia News Network
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