Badminton team coach who convinced teen student to have sex with him jailed 3 years

SINGAPORE: A badminton team coach who had sexual relations with a secondary school student he had trained was jailed for three years on Thursday (May 23). 

The man, then 29, had groomed the girl, then 15, by asking her intimate questions. He then took advantage of her in the car park of a club with sports facilities in 2019.

Now 33, the man pleaded guilty to two out of three counts of sexual penetration of a minor under 16. The remaining count was taken into consideration for his sentence. 

The victim and accused cannot be named due to a gag order to protect her identity. 

The accused had been employed as a badminton team coach between 2017 and June 2019. The victim, then in Secondary 1, joined the badminton team in 2017 and knew the man as a coach. 

Between March and April 2017, the accused and the victim started following each other on Instagram and began messaging daily. 

Eventually, the accused began taking the victim home after practice and also took her out for meals. He additionally conducted free private coaching sessions for her. 

In 2018, when the victim was about 14, the accused started holding her hands in public, as well as hugged and kissed her in his car. 

"The accused’s care and attention towards the victim made her feel special. The accused told her that they could only be in an ‘unofficial’ relationship as he was already married and the victim agreed to this arrangement," the prosecution said. 

After the victim turned 15 in 2019, the accused started asking her intimate questions. He sent her a checklist of questions, including if she had sex before. 

When the accused asked if he could have sex with her, the girl declined. The accused, however, persisted in his requests for sex and she eventually agreed. 

Meanwhile, the principal and the Head of Department for Co-Curricular Activities and Physical Education at the girl's secondary school were notified about inappropriate behavior from the accused in April 2019.

The accused had sent inappropriate messages to students, including girls who were not from the badminton team. 

The principal spoke to seven students, with two saying they received inappropriate messages in 2018. 

The messages commented on the looks and figures of other girls in the school, asked if the student had watched pornography, and questioned a student on the extent of her relationship with her boyfriend. 

In his messages, the accused sent pictures of girls in bikinis or underwear. He also asked if the student would let him take photographs of her in similar clothing. After internal investigations, the accused was terminated as a badminton coach in July 2019. 

SEXUAL ACTS WITH VICTIM

In September 2019, the accused took the victim to his car which was parked at a club with sports facilities. 

He then performed sexual acts on her before having sex with her. 

While he wore a condom initially, he removed it midway during the act. When the victim asked him why, the accused responded "with a laugh" and told her that "it did not feel as nice when wearing a condom", the prosecution said in court documents. 

The accused ended the session when it was time to go for his coaching. He held badminton coaching sessions in the same club. 

After this incident, the two continued to text, with the victim expressing her worries about getting pregnant. The accused told her not to worry and asked if she could meet him again to have sex, but she refused. 

She agreed to a private badminton training session at the same club later that month. Before this session, the accused asked for her to perform a sexual act on him and she agreed. 

"The victim agreed to engage in the sexual acts with the accused as she felt indebted to him for his kindness," the prosecution said. 

After the two sexual encounters, the pair drifted apart and only contacted each other occasionally. 

The victim began realising that the accused's actions were wrong and occasionally texted him to tell him that she felt "dirty" for what had happened. She hoped to elicit an apology from him as she wanted closure, said the prosecution. 

"However, the accused refused to apologise and responded by stating that what he did was to care for her,"  the prosecution continued. 

The victim grew depressed and sought help from her school counsellors in 2022. She could not decide whether to lodge a police report against him. 

She eventually did so on Jul 27, 2022, fearing that others might fall prey to the accused's advances. 

The man was arrested the next day, but he had deleted all his text messages with the victim. He eventually came clean about what he had done. 

The prosecution asked for four years' jail. Deputy Public Prosecutor Santhra Aiyyasamy said in court documents that the victim was in a vulnerable position by virtue of her youth, and that any consent she gave could not be deemed positive consent. 

"In fact, the victim had refused to engage in sexual activities with the accused when he had broached the idea with her but had subsequently relented when the accused persisted and since she felt obligated as the accused had been paying special attention to her by listening to her problems, sending her home, buying her meals and giving her free personal coaching sessions," said Ms Santhra.

Ms Santhra also described the man's high degree of premeditation, exhibited by his behaviour towards the victim leading up to the offences. 

"He had also set the stage since 2017 to wait for the opportunity to engage in sexual acts with the victim by chatting with the victim on a daily basis (and) exhibiting kind gestures towards the victim," she said

"All of these were done while he was still her badminton coach," she added.

The accused had "clearly" abused the trust placed on him by the victim, school and the victim's parents, the prosecutor said. 

The man's lawyers Yamuna Balakrishnan and Jonathan Wong disagreed with the prosecution on the presence of abuse of trust. They said that at the time of the offences, the accused was no longer the victim's badminton coach and, as such, did not abuse her trust. 

"The accused and the victim had initiated a romantic relationship. The victim at that material time was below 16 years of age, she had consented to the relationship and to the sexual activities that occurred between them," the lawyers said in court documents. 

"The defence humbly submits that while the victim does not have the capacity to consent to any sexual activity, we respectfully emphasise that the victim, although below 16 years of age at the material time, was not significantly young that her age demonstrated a clear exploitation on (the accused's) part."

Given the pair's relationship, there was no premeditation and planning involved as the acts were committed in this context, said the lawyers. 

"There was no physical harm sustained by the victim, and if there was any harm, it would be on the lower end of the spectrum given the circumstances in which the acts arise," said the lawyers. 

The lawyers maintained that the man had genuinely cared for the victim, whom he had developed romantic feelings for, and had meant her no harm. 

The defence also submitted a letter from the man's wife, in which she pleaded for a lighter sentence for her husband. The lawyers sought a 20-month jail term for their client. 

For sexual penetration of a minor under 16, an offender may be jailed for up to 10 years, fined, or both.