SINGAPORE, June 22 — A 16-year-old resident of Singapore Boys’ Hostel yesterday (June 21) admitted to beating up a younger fellow resident, making the victim strip naked and lick his shoes, among other degrading acts.
The offender pleaded guilty to four charges in relation to the abuse of the victim, who was under 16 years of age at the time. The charges were:
• Harassment
• Voluntarily causing hurt
• Insulting the modesty of the victim
• Distributing child abuse material
Five other charges will be taken into consideration for sentencing.
All parties in this case cannot be named to protect their identities.
What happened
The court heard that the victim, the offender, along with a co-accused identified in court documents as B2, were residents at the hostel.
Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Matthew Choo said that the offender and B2 stole some money from the victim, but when the victim confronted them sometime on or before July 19 last year, they denied the accusation and “took offence”.
On the evening of July 19 itself, the offender and B2 forced the victim to go into a common toilet in the hostel and assaulted him.
The offender warned the victim not to “falsely” make such accusations again or “there will be people waiting” for him outside his school, DPP Choo said.
All three bumped into another teenager outside the toilet and recounted what just happened to the victim.
This other teenager then told the pair not to beat up the victim any further, and reported the matter to the staff members of the hostel the next day.
Two days after the toilet incident, B2 and the offender met the victim outside the hostel and pressured him to skip school with them.
When they were out, B2 called a friend of the offender — another co-accused teenager who did not reside in the hostel and identified as B3 — to join them.
The offender and B2 told B3 that they wanted to beat up the victim for the supposed “false” accusation and for reporting them to the hostel staff members over the toilet incident.
The offender, B2 and the victim then met B3 at a car park in Punggol. Here, the trio allegedly slapped, punched and kicked the victim all over his body.
B3 then allegedly recorded their assault of the victim using a mobile phone. The trio demanded that the victim strip naked, which he did out of fear, before beating him up further.
They then made the victim lick the shoes of both the offender and B3 multiple times, with the offender kicking the victim’s face in the process.
The three teenagers continued to hurt and insult the victim, such as kicking him in the groin area many times, making him kneel and beg for forgiveness and perform a dance in the nude, while recording him using mobile phones.
At one point, one of them even recorded a close-up of the victim’s private parts.
The offender also sent a video of the victim dancing in the nude to the teenager who had reported the toilet assault incident to the hostel.
After the ordeal that lasted for about half an hour, they warned the victim to not inform anyone about what had happened or he would be beaten up again, and they left the scene.
The victim got dressed, called his form teacher and headed to school. A school counsellor took him to the hospital, where he was examined and found to suffer from multiple swelling and bruises.
He was later admitted to the ward, though the court documents did not mention how long he was warded.
B2’s case is still pending before the courts, while B3 is undergoing investigation.
The offender is expected to be sentenced in July.
A person who distributes child abuse material can be jailed for up to seven years, fined or caned.
Harassment carries a jail term of up to six months or a fine of up to S$5,000, or both.
For voluntarily causing hurt, a person can be jailed for up to three years or fined up to S$5,000, or both.
A person convicted of insulting a person's modesty can be jailed for up to one year or fined, or both. ― TODAY
