Odd job worker jailed for paid sex with Viet minor in S’pore
Elena Chong, Asia News Network (The Straits Times), Singapore | World | Sat, June 16 2012, 1:37 PM
A man who paid S$120 (US$94.5) to have sex with an underage Vietnamese prostitute was jailed for four months on Friday.
Odd-job worker Tan Wah Eng, 60, admitted to having commercial sex with the 17-year-old at Four Chain View Hotel in Geylang on June 19 last year.
It is an offence for any person to pay for the sexual services of a person who is under 18 years old.
The maximum punishment is seven years' jail and a fine.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Seraphina Fong said Tan would regularly meet an acquaintance, Seng Swee Meng, 42, at a coffeeshop in Lorong 42, Geylang.
Tan knew Seng was a pimp who had in his charge Vietnamese prostitutes, and said Seng told him that he had “new arrivals'' of Vietnamese girls at one meeting.
Seng also said he could introduce them to him for sexual services in exchange for S$100, the court heard.
On June 19, Seng told the underage girl to meet him at the coffeeshop in Lorong 42, Geylang.
He then instructed her to follow Tan, who was at the coffeeshop. Tan took her to a hotel and paid her S$120 for her services.
Tan, who was among nine men brought to court in March for having commercial sex with underage girls, did not ask the victim for her age, the court heard.
Seng, who used to run a brothel in a Geylang flat with his Vietnamese wife Ngo Thien, 31, is now serving five years' jail after pleading guilty to 15 charges under the Women's Charter. His wife is on the run.
