Teacher in S’pore sent sexually explicit text messages to underage male student

The 64-year-old man, who cannot be named owing to a gag order to protect the victim’s identity, was sentenced to three weeks’ jail on Oct 12 after he pleaded guilty to one count of having sexual communication with a minor below 16 years old. — Image by Racool_studio on Freepik

SINGAPORE: A secondary school teacher who got to know one of his male students in 2020 started sending the boy sexually explicit text messages two years later.

Feeling sexually exploited, the 15-year-old victim alerted the police in February 2023.

The 64-year-old man, who cannot be named owing to a gag order to protect the victim’s identity, was sentenced to three weeks’ jail on Oct 12 after he pleaded guilty to one count of having sexual communication with a minor below 16 years old.

He got to know the boy in 2020 when the latter was a Secondary 1 student, and they shared a teacher-student relationship.

The man started texting the boy in late 2022 and in November that year, sent the teenager a message about a sex toy and how it could be used.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Lee Da Zhuan told the court: “The victim was alarmed by the accused’s messages and felt sexually exploited.”

Shortly after midnight on Jan 28, 2023, the man sent another sexually explicit text message to the boy, who alerted the police 10 days later.

On Thursday, DPP Lee asked for the man to be sentenced to at least a month in jail, adding: “Instead of caring for the victim as a student, the accused made use of his position as a teacher to procure sexual conversations with the student.

“The accused acted exactly the opposite of his responsibility towards the victim as his teacher by taking advantage of the victim, sexually texting the victim on multiple occasions.”

The Straits Times has asked the Ministry of Education about the offender’s employment status with it. – The Straits Times (Singapore)/Asia News Network