SINGAPORE, May 28 — A boy promised his ex-girlfriend that he would delete intimate photos and videos of her, but later decided to upload them onto a file-sharing website and sell them.

Yesterday (May 27), the boy, now 18 years old, was convicted of two counts of distributing intimate images and recordings of the girl, who is now 16, without consent.

He also pleaded guilty to a charge of rape and sexual penetration of a minor.

Several other charges relating to voluntarily causing hurt using a dangerous weapon, committing mischief, cheating and dishonestly inducing a delivery of property, and posting advertisements to sell tobacco products were also admitted.

Another 16 charges of similar nature will be taken into consideration during the sentencing.

The teenager and his victims cannot be named due to a court order to protect the victims’ identities.

What happened

The boy and his victim, who were schoolmates, were in a brief relationship in 2019. They then broke up but remained friends.

Sometime in June 2021, the victim sent him 23 intimate images of herself via WhatsApp and told him to delete them afterwards.

The boy told her that he would, but then reneged on the agreement.

The next day, the victim sent another 20 intimate pictures and videos to another boy, and similarly told him to delete them after viewing.

She was unaware that both boys were together at the time.

The first boy forwarded the second set of images and videos from the second boy’s mobile phone to his own.

In early August 2021, the offender posted advertisements of the victim’s images and videos on online forum Reddit.

He also uploaded them to a file-hosting website called Mega and created sharing links.

Court documents stated that he had distributed them on 77 occasions between August 15, 2021 and January 20, 2022.

Interested buyers would contact the offender though Telegram application and would then transfer money to his PayPal or bank account, with amounts ranging from S$15 to S$120.

In total, he earned about S$3,050 from the transactions.

On January 25, 2022, the victim was alerted by another of the offender’s ex-girlfriends that her images and recordings had been posted for sale online.

The victim filed a police report that same day.

The offender’s other ex-girlfriend was also another of his victims, who had her intimate images and recordings distributed to others without her knowledge.

The boy was later arrested.

Other sexual offences

The court heard on Monday that the offender had committed other sexual offences following these episodes.

In December 2022, he had sex at home with a then 14-year-old girl who was in Secondary 2.

On March 2023, he had sex with a then 13-year-old girl during a drinking party, also at his home. Later, the victim made a police report against him, stating that she had been raped.

Other offences related to voluntarily causing hurt using a dangerous weapon, mischief, cheating and dishonestly inducing a delivery of property, and posting advertisements to sell tobacco products were also heard in court.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Tung Shou Pin asked the court to call for a reformative training suitability report, saying that the offender was "unrepentant”, and that the 24 charges he faced were of serious nature.

He had also frequently reoffended while on bail.

In mitigation, defence counsel Edwin Ho from the Public Defender’s Office asked the court to call for a probation suitability report, saying that the teenager had committed the offences out of "youthful folly”.

District Judge Carol Ling called for suitability reports for reformative training as well as probation.

Reformative training is a regimented rehabilitation programme for offenders under 21 who commit relatively serious crimes, while probation is usually offered to first-time offenders between the ages of 16 and 21 and does not result in a criminal record.

The teenager will be sentenced on June 28. — TODAY