SINGAPORE, Aug 15 — Lying that he was a volunteer at a student-care centre and that he needed to complete a game challenge to get back his slippers, Tan Boon Hwee convinced a woman to let him draw smiley faces on her toes.

After drawing on her toes, he touched her feet so that he could adjust their positioning for picture-taking.

For this, Tan, 35, was sentenced today to eight months’ jail for outrage of modesty.

On top of that, there was another penalty of 36 days’ jail because he committed the offence while on a remission order, which is typically issued to prisoners who show good conduct and are then allowed to be released after serving two-thirds of their sentence.

Tan, who has a sexual interest in feet, was convicted before for similar offences from 2019.

He has chronic adjustment disorder with depressed mood and paraphilic disorder (related to atypical sexual interests), but the latest assessment by the Institute of Mental Health, dated May 3 this year, found that these disorders had no contributory link to his offending.

The victim, aged 35, cannot be named due to a court order.

What happened

Assistant Public Prosecutor (APP) Lydia Goh said that on April 18 this year, Tan planned to molest people by touching their feet and took a black marker with him.

At about 1pm, the victim was walking to a playground in Ang Mo Kio after having her lunch. While she was there, Tan approached her and introduced himself as a volunteer at a student-care centre.

To convince the woman to remove her shoes, he lied that he had lost a challenge while playing a game and his slippers were taken away from him. To get them back, he needed to draw smiley faces on the feet of five different people and take a photograph of their feet.

Thinking he was genuine, the woman agreed but she took the marker from Tan and drew the smiley faces on her own feet.

After she did so and returned the marker to him, he asked if he could draw on her toes. Believing that it was part of the challenge, she let him draw on each of her toes.

Tan then adjusted her feet to take a photo using his mobile phone. He showed these pictures to the woman, before asking if they could be friends. The woman declined his request.

When she returned home, the woman did an internet search and saw that Tan had been in the news in the past few years.

Fearful that he might have captured a picture of her thighs since she was wearing shorts at the playground, she decided to make a police report.

Repeat offender

APP Goh called for a jail term of nine to 10 months with an extra 36 days for the reoffending while on remission order.

"He has obviously not learnt his lesson. He continued with this deception (to touch women’s feet), which is similar in his 2019 to 2023 cases,” she said, referring to his past convictions.

In April 2022, TODAY reported that Tan was sentenced to two weeks and five days’ jail after being convicted of two charges of outrage of modesty.

In one of these offences, he had claimed to be a member of a nonexistent charity called the "Barefoot Walking Society” when he molested a woman by caressing the soles of her feet. They had met through dating application Tinder.

In 2019, he was fined S$8,000 for five molestation offences.

Tan, who was represented by Mohamed Sarhan from the Public Defender’s Office, argued that a lighter sentence of six to seven months’ jail would be sufficient.

Sarhan sought an extra 13 days’ jail for Tan’s reoffending while on a remission order.

"The degree of sexual exploitation is low as feet (are) not private parts... and the skin-to-skin contact was low,” Sarhan added.

In his brief sentencing remarks, District Judge Lim Tse Haw said that there is a need for "specific deterrence to hopefully deter (Tan) from reoffending, and general deterrence for the protection of the public”.

He also addressed Tan, adding that it was his hope that Tan would not return to court again for similar offences.

"The next time you come back, the sentence will certainly be much longer.”

For molestation, a person can be jailed for up to three years, fined or caned, or receive any combination of these punishments. — TODAY