Man, 28, admits to sex act with 13-year-old girl at HDB staircase landing, possessing obscene videos of child abuse
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- A 28-year-old man pleaded guilty on Tuesday (May 21) to having oral sex with a child under 14 at a staircase landing of a housing block
- Muhammad Mohamed Iqbal also pleaded guilty to one count of possessing obscene videos including some showing child abuse
- He met the victim through a Telegram chat group, and exchanged sexual communications after some time
- A resident who witnessed the obscene act through his window reported it to the police
BY
SUFIYAN SAMSURI
Published May 21, 2024Updated May 21, 2024
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SINGAPORE — A 28-year-old man pleaded guilty on Tuesday (May 21) to committing a sexual act with a girl who was aged 13 at the time at the staircase landing of a housing block.
After his arrest, the man's mobile phone was also found to contain 19 obscene video clips, some involving children.
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Muhammad Mohamed Iqbal pleaded guilty in the High Court to one count of having oral sex with a minor and one count of possessing obscene videos of child abuse.
Four other charges of a similar nature will be taken into consideration for sentencing, which has been adjourned to a later date.
The victim cannot be named due to a court gag order to protect her identity.
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Deputy Public Prosecutors Colin Ng and June Ngian told the court that sentencing submissions would be made later after the outcome of another case expected in early June.
WHAT HAPPENED
Muhammad and the victim, a then-Secondary One student, first got to know each other through a Telegram chat group sometime in 2020.He initiated a private conversations with her, and introduced himself as “Crimson”.
After chatting for some time, he started making sexually inappropriate comments to the victim, saying that he “liked her body” and "would like to have car sex" with her.
He also sent an unsolicited photo of his private parts to the victim, which made her uncomfortable.
She then uninstalled the application from her mobile phone and stopped communicating with Muhammad.
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Sometime around July 2021, the victim reinstalled the application and received a message from him, apologising for behaving inappropriately during their last conversations.
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They then continued chatting on the app.
Muhammad also lied to the victim, saying that he was an 18-year-old polytechnic student as he was afraid that she would stop talking to him if he had disclosed his actual age.
After some time, the girl began to treat Muhammad as a good friend and they began exchanging various forms of sexual communications with each other.
On the morning of Aug 20, 2021, Muhammad and the victim, who was in school uniform, met up before she had to go to school.
As it was raining heavily, they sought shelter then Muhammad took her to a staircase landing at the top floor of a Housing and Development Board block, where they then engaged in oral sex.
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A resident, a 47-year-old male American, witnessed the act from his house window and called for the police.
That same afternoon, the victim was told by her mother that someone had lodged a police report about the obscene act that had been done in public.
The victim's mother then tried to message and call Muhammad through Telegram.
Suspecting something amiss and that someone had lodged a report against him, Muhammad then confronted the victim, who denied lodging the report.
He told her that he felt “betrayed”, and removed his profile picture from Telegram as well as deleting his conversations with the victim.
He was arrested on Aug 23, 2021 at about 8.30pm.
OTHER OFFENCE
Following his arrest, the police seized Muhammad’s mobile phone as part of their investigation.A total of 19 obscene video clips were later discovered, nine of which depicted children engaging in sexual pose or sexual activity.
The court heard that Muhammad had downloaded the video files from the internet for his own consumption.
In court on Tuesday, Muhammad was seen in tears while giving his guilty plea.
For committing oral penetration of a child under 14, Muhammad could be jailed for up to 20 years, and fined or caned.
For possession of child abuse material, he could be jailed for up to five years, and fined or caned.
