Updated: 02/07/2014 20:15 | By Channel NewsAsia
Online vice ring pimp gets 7 years’ corrective training
Malcolm Graham Head, a 33-year-old pimp who had admitted to a series of vice offences as well as causing grievous hurt to a customer, was sentenced to seven years' corrective training and seven strokes of the cane. He was also banned from driving for 16 years. -- PHOTO: SINGAPORE POLICE FORCE
SINGAPORE: A pimp who ran an online vice ring was on Friday sentenced by a district court to seven years' corrective training and seven strokes of the cane.
33-year-old Malcolm Graham Head was also banned from driving for 16 years.
Head had faced 41 charges that included vice-related offences, drug-related offences, causing grievous hurt to one of his customers, as well as driving while under disqualification.
He had pleaded guilty last month to 17 charges, with the remainder taken into consideration for sentencing.
Head committed the latest slew of offences within six months of his release from prison, which had prompted prosecutors to press for corrective training.
Corrective training, which is for repeat offenders, is a harsher regime than jail and does not provide remission for good behaviour.
The court previously heard that Head and his girlfriend ran an online prostitution ring, where they procured women and advertised their sexual services on various websites.
One of the girls they procured was a student who was 16 years old at the time, whom they tricked into providing sexual services to their clients.
Head had befriended the minor via Facebook in October 2012, and asked if she wanted to earn fast cash and high pay.
He told her she would only have to act as a social escort, accompanying customers for dinner and events.
But on the first day of the job, she found out that she was expected to provide sexual services to the clients.
Head's girlfriend even passed the minor a copy of her identity card to check in at the hotel as the girl was underage.
The court also heard that the minor was kept under lock and key, and fed the drug "Ice" when she was too tired to work to keep her awake so she could serve more customers.
On occasions when she was unwilling to work or rejected by customers, she was punished.
The couple would also beat her.
In 2013, former businessman Tang Boon Thiew, another pimp at the centre of an underage prostitute scandal, was jailed 58 months and fined S$90,000. - CNA/gn
