A 50-YEAR-OLD who had sex three times with a 15-year-old customer of a massage centre he operated was jailed for 1½ years yesterday.
District Judge Eddy Tham said that Ong Huat Kok had abused the trust the minor's parents put in him. Ong had known her parents because he had patronised her mother's shop.
In 2003, when the girl was nine, her parents brought her to his centre for massage because of a chronic ache she experienced in her left shoulder. She continued going at least once a month.
On Sept 30, 2010, Ong asked the girl if he could be her "part-time boyfriend", and she agreed. Then 47, he told her he was single despite having married a Chinese national the year before.
They had sex at the shop, Li Kang Therapy Centre, at Block 6, Hougang Avenue 3. He told her to leave by the back door and not tell anyone. They had sex two more times over the next two days.
A week later, the minor's vice-principal reported the matter to the police.
In sentencing him, the judge said the wider the age gap, the more culpable the accused, who was "expected to exercise greater control as a mature adult".
He also considered Ong's previous sexual offences. Ong was sentenced to 28 months' jail and nine strokes of the cane in 1997 for outraging the modesty of a woman.
For sexual penetration of a minor, he could have been jailed up to 10 years, fined, or both.
