Dangers of internet

Thursday September 23, 2010
Malaysian jailed in Singapore for ‘sexual grooming’

SINGAPORE: A man posed as a schoolgirl on a social networking site and cajoled an 11-year-old girl to do indecent acts in front of her webcam.

Unknown to the victim, Poong Foo Yun (pic), 25, a Malaysian, recorded her sexual acts, and later threatened to release the video onto the Internet if she did not comply with his instructions.

On Wednesday, the unemployed man was given a total of 19 months’ jail on three charges.

He had pleaded guilty to procuring a child to perform an indecent act; sexual penetration of a minor and sexual grooming in 2008.

Three other charges were taken into consideration when Poong was sentenced.

Pressing for a substantial jail term, DPP Kevin Yong cited several aggravating factors. He said Poong used the Internet to deceive the victim into believing that he was a 15-year-old girl when he was 23 at the time.

‘It is an aggravating factor because not only would he have the pleasure of viewing the footages repeatedly at his leisure, but also because he made use of the footages to issue a thinly veiled threat to release the videos onto the Internet if the victim did not comply with his instructions in the future.” DPP Kevin Yong said.

Poong, who was arrested at Redhill MRT station in October when he turned up to meet the victim, preyed on the young and vulnerable victim to satisfy his own lust, said the DPP. — Straits Times/ANN