Woman involved in prostituting minors to be assessed for reformative training; man jailed for engaging service

SINGAPORE – A reformative training centre suitability report has been called for a woman who exploited two underage girls for prostitution and lived off their earnings.

The woman, 20, cannot be named to protect the identity of the two girls, who were around 16 years old at the time of the offences.

She will return to court on Oct 22 to be sentenced after pleading guilty on Sept 14 to three charges.

They included recruiting a person for the purpose of exploitation, receiving payment in connection with the exploitation of a trafficked victim, and living on the earnings of the prostitution of another person.

During reformative training, young offenders are detained in a centre to undergo a strict regimen that can include foot drills and counselling.

Court documents show that the woman got to know the first victim in January 2024 and she was under the impression that the girl was 15 years old.

On Jan 15, 2024, the girl told the woman she wanted to provide sexual services for money. The woman agreed to help her look for clients in exchange for the girl buying her food.

The woman used her Telegram account to advertise the girl’s services and quickly received two messages from potential clients.

The girl was paid $100 by each man after performing a sex act on them. She used part of her earnings to buy clothes and food for the woman.

The second victim, who was 16 years old, befriended the woman through Instagram in May 2023. The woman knew the girl’s age.

On Feb 5, 2024, the girl contacted the woman after she saw a boy on the woman’s Instagram post.

The girl told the woman she found the boy attractive. The woman said she could introduce the boy to her.

The girl met the woman at the boy’s home that day. The woman told her the boy owed a personal debt to his ex-girlfriend and said the girl could help him repay the debt by performing paid sexual acts.

The woman told the girl she should help the boy if she loved him, to which the girl agreed. The woman also asked the girl not to tell the boy of the arrangement.

The woman advertised the girl’s sexual services on Telegram and she performed sexual acts for clients, who paid cash or via PayNow to the woman.

The woman paid for the girl’s food and asked her to sleep at the staircase landings near the woman’s home.

In total, the woman received $1,435 in exchange for her exploitation of the second girl between Feb 10 and Feb 22, 2024.

On Sept 14, one of the customers was sentenced to four weeks’ jail.

Syahirul Daud Abdul Razak, 26, had pleaded guilty to one count of obtaining the sexual services of the younger girl.

He admitted to have paid $30 for the girl to perform a sex act on him at an HDB staircase landing. The prosecution said Syahirul did not check the girl’s age.

After the sex act, he took the girl to his van and drove to a more secluded area to have sex, although he did not end up committing the act.

Syahirul was one of eight men charged on Aug 3 with obtaining commercial sex from the two girls.

An offender who obtains paid sexual services from those below 18 years of age can be jailed for up to seven years, fined, or both.