SOURCE: The Straits Times A DELIVERYMAN became interested in the girl who opened the door when he sent pizza to her home. Terence Tan Yan Han later made a phone call to her home. He and the 13-year-old girl exchanged cellphone numbers, and within two weeks, they had sex at a Geylang hotel.
Yesterday, a district court ordered Tan to serve one year's probation for having sex with a minor. He also has to perform 80 hours of community service, and his parents pledged a $5,000 bond to ensure his good behaviour.
Tan, now 24 and a waiter, pleaded guilty last month. He committed the offence in February 2009 when he was 20 and a deliveryman for Canadian Pizza.
Despite knowing the girl was under 16 and below the age of consent, he asked her to have sex with him. On the arranged day, he used his motorcycle to pick her up from her secondary school in Ang Mo Kio. When they checked into the hotel, he handed her a jacket to wear over her school uniform.
They had unprotected sex. Afraid she would get pregnant, she sent him text messages, but he brushed her concerns aside.
She confided in a staff member of her school. Her mother was informed, and she took her daughter to make a police report. A medical check-up indicated no pregnancy.
Tan's lawyer Amarick Gill said the offence was committed in a moment of folly, and that Tan had had no other brush with the law.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Sabrina Choo objected to probation, as the victim was only 13 at the time of the offence.
In sentencing, District Judge Kessler Soh told Tan that the court was giving him a second chance, and warned him not to do any such thing again.
