S’porean man poses as teenager and instructs underage girl from US to masturbate, undress
A Singaporean man posed as a 17-year-old while in an online intimate relationship with a 12-year-old girl from the US, secretly recording as he asked her to undress in front of the camera and commit obscene acts on 61 occasions.
The accused, Sebastian Lye Chee Weng, 32, faced a total of 16 charges, including offences under the Children and Young Persons Act and possession of child sexual abuse material.
On June 5, he pleaded guilty to five charges. The judge took the remaining charges into consideration during sentencing and sentenced Lye to five years and 11 months’ imprisonment, as well as three strokes of the cane.
He was also ordered to serve an additional 66 days in prison, having committed the offences while on parole.
The victim was an American girl who was between 12 and 14 years old at the time of the offences. She cannot be named due to a court-imposed gag order.
According to Shin Min Daily News, Lye met the victim through an online chat platform, Omegle, in October 2018. He posed as a 17-year-old, despite being 24 years old at the time.
Believing him, the victim agreed to engage in an online romantic relationship with Lye, and the pair frequently communicated through video calls.
Between Nov 23, 2018 and Dec 1, 2019, Lye sexually exploited the victim at least 61 times. He instructed her during video calls to engage in obscene acts, including exposing herself, masturbating, and inserting hard objects into her private parts.
All these acts were secretly recorded by Lye, who instructed the victim to send him photos and videos of her undressed.
Over 12,000 photos and videos of child sex abuse found on man’s devices
The pair did not maintain regular contact after Sept 30, 2020, but Lye contacted the victim again on April 9, 2021, asking her to commit indecent acts.
The victim, who was 14 years old in 2021, indicated that she no longer wished to continue the relationship and initiated a breakup.
However, Lye sent her messages on Instagram on the evening of May 13, 2021, threatening to expose the intimate recordings to her acquaintances.
The victim subsequently replied, asking the accused to stop contacting her.
Lye retaliated by sending multiple nude photographs of her to a male online acquaintance the next morning. The victim later informed her parents, and her father reported the matter to the police in the US.
The Singapore Police Force received a report from US authorities on Nov 17, 2021 and raided Lye’s residence on April 12, 2022. There, officers seized his mobile phone, laptop, and hard drives – 12,755 videos and images of child sexual abuse were found on the devices.
Lye was also previously suspected of sexually exploiting another female victim, and police arrested him on Nov 14, 2018, to assist with investigations. In September 2020, he was sentenced to eight months and two weeks in jail.
He was released 86 days early for good behaviour, but committed the crimes during his parole — leading to an additional 66 days in jail.
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