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The Straits Times
www.straitstimes.comPublished on Apr 17, 2012
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APRIL 17, 2012
Teenager's trysts with 44 alleged clients revealed
She got up to $850 a session; slept with 4 one afternoon
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By Leonard Lim & Tham Yuen-C
While her peers attended to homework after school, the underage girl who allegedly had sex with 44 men was attending to clients in hotels.
On one afternoon, she slept with four of them, one after another.
The Singaporean teenager at the centre of a high-profile online vice-ring case did not appear in court on Monday when the 44 men were charged, but court documents revealed the appointments she allegedly kept with them.
The men are believed to have sought her services through an online vice ring and their case is the biggest to date since the laws were stiffened in 2008 to curb underage prostitution.
For her services, the girl, who is understood to have been touted on the now-deactivated website as having C-cup breasts, raked in between $450 and $850 per session.
Her services, allegedly between September 2010 and February last year, were in hotels ranging from budget establishments to premium spots.
Most of her clients allegedly had sex with her at Hotel 81 Bencoolen. Other venues included Marina Bay Sands, M Hotel, Elizabeth Hotel, Strand Hotel and even a Cambridge Road flat.
On Oct 10, 2010, she was reported to have had sex with four men - three at Hotel 81 Bencoolen and one at M Hotel - between 2pm and 5.34pm.
On other days, such as Oct 29 the same year, she slept allegedly with three clients over several hours.
She was said to have had sex with Desmond Quek Jin Yang, 27, at 5.11pm that day in Room 324 at Hotel 81 Bencoolen.
She then moved to Room 301 for sex allegedly with Foo Kim Meng, 45, between 5.56pm and 7.46pm.
Finally, Chia Kok Peng, 38, allegedly had sex with her in Room 316 later that evening.
Criminal lawyer Subhas Anandan, speaking to reporters after his clients were charged, called her 'a hardcore prostitute' and his clients, the 'victims'.
He represented 10 of the 44 men charged with having underage sex with her.
The man who ran the online vice ring that the girl belonged to did not appear in court. He was charged last November in a court appearance that went unnoticed.
His name, however, appeared in all the charge sheets of the 44 on Monday, as the girl was identified as being 'under the charge of one Tang Boon Thiew'.
If the court documents were precise with locations of the hotel rooms and timings of the trysts right down to the minute, it was because Tang kept phone and computer logs of all transactions of the girls under his charge, said sources.
The girl is over 18 now, but was not at the time that the alleged sex acts are said to have been committed.
Prostitution is not against the law in Singapore but having paid sex with a girl under 18 is a crime under laws that were tightened in 2008. The maximum penalty is a seven-year jail term and a fine.
On Monday, most of the 44 men who are facing that prospect went to great lengths to avoid having their faces caught on camera by waiting photographers and television crews.
One covered his head in a plastic bag, others wore face masks, or sunglasses, baseball caps and hoodies. At least one changed into a different shirt, to avoid being recognised.
Some hid and scurried out of the Subordinate Courts only around 8.30pm, more than four hours after their cases were heard.
Some, though, came with parents or wives in tow. One spouse even cradled the couple's baby while accompanying her husband in court.
Former Pei Chun Public School principal Lee Lip Hong, the only one who said on Monday he intended to plead guilty, was accompanied by a younger man. He did not have a lawyer with him.
Lee, 39, walked calmly in and out of the Havelock Road building but declined to speak to reporters.
Others charged included the ex-head of strategic planning at Police Training Command Jarrod Song Eu Loong, former National Environment Agency senior legal counsel Chia Kok Peng and naval officer Chan Wei Kiat.
There were also businessmen and finance industry professionals. The youngest charged was 21 and the oldest, 48.
Mr Anandan was the first among several other prominent criminal lawyers - including Mr Amolat Singh, Mr Hamidul Haq, Mr Thong Chee Kun and Mr Josephus Tan - to make representation in Court 26 on Monday.
He told the court that without the identity of the girl - whose name was left out of court documents - the charges were 'flawed'.
He said he would make a request to the Attorney-General's Chambers for her identity, and intends to bring the matter to the High Court if he is unsuccessful.
Mr Anandan told reporters later: 'She has been advertising herself on the website. As far as I'm concerned, she's a hardcore prostitute who doesn't need any protection. Actually, all our clients are the victims.'
While earlier reports indicated that up to 80 men had been hauled up for questioning, sources said some likely had been left off because they did not have sex with an underage girl.
But lawyers on Monday said that they still have some clients who have not been charged.
Most clients with lawyers will have a criminal case discovery conference on June 11. Three men who have yet to engage counsel will have their cases mentioned on Monday.
As news spread about the men, those who knew them reacted with shock.
Said a former schoolmate of one of those charged, Yap Eng Kian, 39: 'I'm surprised, and I do feel sorry for his family at this difficult time.'
Additional reporting by Elena Chong
and Lim Yan Liang
[email protected]
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Copyright © 2011 Singapore Press Holdings. All rights reserved.
