A 31-year old former army officer and financial consultant, Chan Chun Hong, was sentenced to four years and eight months’ imprisonment after pleading guilty to 12 charges for offences including the organising a tour for sex with a minor under 18 years old outside Singapore or distributing information to promote such conduct as well transmitting obscene material online. Chan was sentenced to a fine of $8,000 for the charges involving the possession of obscene films which formed the bulk of the proceeded charges.
A further 133 charges were taken into consideration for the purpose of sentencing.
According to information from the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Chan had corresponded with a known paedophile and other users which suggested that he had engaged in child sex tourism outside Singapore.
In imposing sentence, the Court stated that the aim of the law criminalising the organising a tour for sex with a minor under 18 years old outside Singapore or distributing information to promote such conduct under section 376D of the Penal Code was to deter people from seeking out child sex tourism and to prevent the sexual exploitation of young children.
Although this case did not appear to involve syndicated operation and it was the only occasion where Chan had arranged for a commercial sex tour with a minor, there was a possibility that Chan may have previously participated on a tour to exploit young children in the Philippines
This was the first case in Singapore involving the prosecution of an offence of organising an overseas commercial sex tour with minors under section 376D of the Penal Code.
More information on the case may be found here.