A 25-year-old Indian origin former national serviceman with the Singapore Police Force was sentenced to two years’ jail on Tuesday for exploiting underage girls online and involving them in sexual acts.
According to the Strait Times report, A R Arun Prashanth committed sexual acts on three of his five victims who were then aged 12 to 15. He was found to have taken a photograph of more than 700 upskirt pics of unknown women with his mobile phone.
District Judge Kessler Soh, before sentencing Arun Prashanth told the accused: “I hope you realize that what you had done had caused serious harm to the five young girls.”
Consequently, Arun Prashanth has been laid-off from his line of work.
On July 31, he pleaded guilty to one count each of sexually penetrating a minor, performing an obscene act on her and procuring the commission of an obscene act by another underage girl. He also admitted to four counts of insulting a woman’s modesty. These seven charges involved two minors and four unknown women. The victims cannot be named due to a gag order, the report said.
Some day around February and March 2016, Arun sent a direct message to a 12-year-old girl through Instagram and they exchanged mobile phone numbers when she replied in April that year. As soon as she responded, Arun Prashanth started sending her obscene messages several times a day. The court heard he had also told the girl on at least two occasions that he was a policeman.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Kwang Jia Min said: “The accused pestered her for naked pictures or videos of herself showering. He also pressed her to meet him at his house or hotels for ‘cuddles’ or acts of sex. (The girl) felt harassed by the accused and she would try to ignore him. However, she would feel bad for not replying and she replied at times.”
On May 8, 2016, the girl relented after he repeatedly harassed her. The DPP said that the girl later regretted giving in to his request and felt depressed.
However, on February 3, 2017, Arun Prashanth performed an obscene act on another girl aged 14 at his residence and was duly exposed when the girl immediately reached Sembawang Neighbourhood Police Centre to lodge a report.
Subsequently, officers took Arun into custody at his home the next day and they also during the investigation they came across 720 upskirt photographs of unknown women on his mobile phone.
