Man paid for sex with teen
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AN ACCOUNTANT who twice paid to have sex with an underage prostitute from China was jailed for two weeks and fined $16,000 on Tuesday.
The sentence amounted to a victory of sorts for Rodney Sim Hang Nge, 61, who had testified that he did not know the girl was 16 when he had sex with her.
He could have been jailed up to seven years, or fined a maximum of $10,000 on each charge - or both - under a new law, which makes it a crime to have paid sex with a person under 18. The law took effect in February last year.
The father of two grown-up children, a daughter and a son, pleaded guilty last December to two counts of paying $100 to have sex with the girl on Aug 3 and 5 last year.
But during his sentencing hearing, he disputed the prosecution's contention that he knew the prostitute was underage.
Another hearing was then held to resolve this.
On Tuesday, District Judge Jeffrey Sim ruled that Sim, an elder at the Lighthouse Evangelism church, did not deliberately exploit a minor. 'He was misled by both the pimp and the minor into believing that the minor was 18 or above 18 years old,' the judge said.
Sim, he said, also tried to help the prostitute after she told him that she was being forced to work as a commercial sex worker against her will. In fact, his attempts to help her landed him in hot water.
He took her to the Chinese Embassy and then to a police post to lodge a report, and this led to charges against him.
The judge said these facts made Sim's case different from that of Tan Chye Hin, 55, who was jailed nine months last year for having sex with the same girl.
http://www.straitstimes.com/Breaking+News/Singapore/Story/STIStory_406420.html
A 61 years old Elder of Lighthouse Evangelism church and a father of 2, paid for sex with a teenage girl? Even if the girl is 18 or above, he is old enough to be the grandpa.
How did he manage to be an Elder in the 1st place? Or it is ok for his religion to pay for sex?
Or is he going to tell us he is a "Modern Elder", like some modern monk?