Another man pleads guilty in online vice ring case

SINGAPORE: One more man has pleaded guilty to having paid sex with an underage girl in a high—profile online vice ring case.

The court heard on Friday that engineer Lee Tian Song, 33, came across the girl’s services online and contacted her pimp Tan Boon Thiew.

He then paid her S$450 for sex at Hotel 81 Bencoolen in September 2010. The girl was 17 years old at the time.

The court also heard that Lee had asked the girl her age and she had told him she was 19 years old. He did not ask to see her identification.

Lee will be back in court on October 2 for sentencing.

Under Singapore’s law, it is illegal to have paid sex with a girl below 18 years of age.

So far, 51 men have been implicated in the online vice ring case. Four of them have already been sentenced.

Former principal of Pei Chun Public School, Lee Lip Hong, was sentenced to nine weeks’ jail for a similar offence with the same underage girl. Lee, 39, was released from Changi Prison in June after serving six weeks’ jail. The early remission was because of his good behaviour.

On July 30, former executive director of the Singapore Environment Council, Howard Shaw, was jailed three months for having paid sex with the underage girl. Shaw is now out on a S$10,000 bail pending an appeal.

Production manager Chiang Meng Chuan, 31, was sentenced to 12 weeks’ jail on August 13.

Ex—police officer Tan Wee Kiat, 39, was jailed 12 weeks on Monday.

—CNA/ac/al