SINGAPORE: A football coach who sexually assaulted seven boys aged eight to 11 was sentenced to 26 years’ jail and 24 strokes of the cane on Monday (Mar 19).
The 28-year-old, who was diagnosed with paedophilia, pleaded guilty to five of 25 charges of aggravated sexual assault involving five of the seven victims.
He cannot be named due to a gag order.
The assaults, which took place from May to September 2015, came to light when one football-loving boy told his parents that he no longer wanted to play the game. Upon further questioning, the 10-year-old eventually told them about the abuse.
The boy's parents made a police report on Sep 25, leading to the coach’s arrest on Oct 1.
The High Court heard that the accused started coaching the football team for boys aged 12 to 17 in 2012, when he joined as an assistant coach. He took over in 2014, when the head coach left following an argument with the accused.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAfter taking sole control of the team, the man started to recruit younger boys. He distributed pamphlets outside primary schools and created a Facebook page to promote the team.
By 2015, most of the team was made up of boys aged 12 and below, Deputy Public Prosecutors David Khoo and James Chew said.
Because the victims were so young, the accused arranged to pick the boys up and drop them off after training “to assure their parents that they would be taken care of”, prosecutors said.
“Gaining access to these boys, he deliberately sought to isolate them in places such as (public) toilet cubicles, where he would (sexually assault) them to gratify his perverse desires”, they told the court.
The accused abused each of the five victims the same way. He isolated them – in public toilets, nursing rooms or shower stalls – and blindfolded them before sexually assaulting them.
In some cases, the boys did not understand what their coach was doing, let alone know that it was wrong, prosecutors said.
The accused also filmed the assaults. The police found 13 videos and “numerous close-up photographs of the boys’ (private parts)” on the man’s Facebook account, prosecutors said.
They sought at least 27 years’ jail and 24 strokes of the cane. A “lengthy” jail term is justified due to the man’s diagnosis of paedophilia and his moderate to high risk of reoffending, prosecutors argued.
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