A man offered to pay a teenager $1,500 a month to be her “sugar daddy” after he came across the girl’s sexually explicit video which was shared on a messaging platform.
Despite knowing the 17-year-old girl has a history of being suicidal, he later extorted her into sending him another sexually explicit video after threatening to report her for drug abuse.
Muhammad Ruzaini Hassan also threatened to upload her other videos onto a porn website.
On July 2, the 33-year-old Singaporean was sentenced to three years and 10 weeks’ jail, and ordered to receive three strokes of the cane.
He had pleaded guilty to one count each of extortion and obtaining paid sexual services from a minor below 18 years old.
Court documents stated that before he committed the offences, the girl’s sex videos and her personal details were unwillingly leaked online in or around April 2022.
Around the same time, Ruzaini joined a group on Telegram where members shared obscene videos with one another, and came across a video of the girl performing a sexual act.
Without verifying her age, he contacted her via Telegram, offering to be her “sugar daddy” and pay her $1,500 a month.
In addition, he offered to give the girl another $1,500 as a one-time payment if she agreed to have unprotected sex with him and accompany him for an entire day.
Ruzaini also asked the girl for sexually explicit videos of herself and agreed to pay her $100 for each clip.
The teenager agreed to his proposals, and they met around three times at different locations to take part in sexual activities.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Gladys Lim told the court that on May 21, 2022, the pair went to a Jalan Besar hotel and Ruzaini paid the victim $800 in exchange for sexual acts.
The girl was also involved in a case with the Central Narcotics Bureau (CNB) and told Ruzaini that she was abusing drugs at the time, the prosecutor added.
In May 2022, Ruzaini wanted to obtain sexually explicit videos from her for free and used another Telegram account to contact the girl, who did not know that he was the one behind the messages.
DPP Lim said: “The accused asked the victim to send him a video of herself (performing a sexual act). When she refused, he threatened her by saying that he knew about her drug activities and would pass her information to CNB.”
“He also told the victim that he knew information about her, such as her school and which year she was in. To prove that the accused really did know such information, he (correctly) told her that she was a Year 1 student at a particular school.”
Ruzaini “doubled down” when the girl continued to turn down his request, telling her that he had a video of her smoking Ice. He also threatened to upload her other sex videos onto a porn website.
When the girl said he was extorting her, he replied that while he might get charged with the offence, she would be sent to a drug rehabilitation centre.
In desperation, the victim said she would kill herself, only to have Ruzaini taunting her by saying that she was “forever suicidal”, the prosecutor added.
The victim finally complied out of fear and sent him the video.
The police later found out that Ruzaini could be procuring paid sex with a minor below 18 years old and officers arrested him in January 2024.
On July 2, the prosecutor urged the court to sentence him to up to four years and 12 weeks’ jail with up to six strokes of the cane.
She said: “The accused targeted an especially vulnerable victim. He knew that the victim was suicidal and even had been admitted to a girls’ home prior for her depression and suicidal tendencies.”
Ruzaini’s bail has been set at $20,000, and he is expected to begin serving his sentence on July 16.
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Shaffiq Alkhatib for The Straits Times
