Online personality Kurt Tay jailed 14 months, fined for harassment and distributing intimate material

SINGAPORE: Online personality Kurt Tay was sentenced on Wednesday (Apr 22) to 14 months' jail for distributing intimate material online without consent and fined S$3,000 (US$2,300) for threatening the victim.

Tay, whose real name is Tay Foo Wei, pleaded guilty to one charge involving distributing the material and another charge for using threatening communication, with other charges taken into consideration.

THE CASE

The 43-year-old contacted the victim after coming across her Twitter page, which advertised her sexual services, in June 2023. He engaged her for the services and also arranged multiple in-person dates.  

In October that year, the internet figure posted several threatening messages in a Telegram group chat, which included a question on the cost to hire a hitman. He also stated that he wanted “her to die”.

Friends of the victim in the chat were able to identify her as the target of Tay’s messages and showed them to her on the same day. Alarmed, she filed a police report.

The victim and group chat cannot be named due to a gag order by the court.

Slightly over a week later, Tay sent an intimate video and photo of the victim to the group chat without her consent. The chat had over 240 members at the time.

He posted the video 30 times in the chat and sent the photo 13 times, stating that he was doing so as “an eye for an eye”.

Shortly after, 10 people told the victim that Tay had posted the video and photo of her. She made a police report the same day.

Finding out about the distributed content made her “alarmed, distressed and humiliated” to the extent that she considered seeking psychiatric help, according to court documents.

Tay was arrested about three days later. The video and photo were found on his mobile phone, as well as in the Telegram chats where he posted them.

The prosecution sought a fine of at least S$4,000 for Tay’s charge under the Protection from Harassment Act (POHA) and at least 16 months’ jail for his distribution of the video and image.

They argued that Tay repeatedly cursing the victim to die and asking how much it cost to hire a killer caused her to fear for her safety and life.

The video and image shared also caused the victim a high degree of harm, given the explicit nature of the acts shown and how her face was fully visible in the content, they added

The shared material was also readily re-distributable to others, as those who received it only needed to press a few buttons to forward the content to others in a few seconds, they said.

Tay acted with “malice for the purpose of revenge, with the intention of maximising the humiliation caused to the victim”, said the prosecution, noting the number of times he shared the material and how he did not remove them until he was arrested.

“His intent was clearly to ensure that everyone in the chat group would definitely see the intimate recording and image. When seen together with the harassing messages, it is clear that the accused’s intent was to humiliate the victim.”

Tay, who refers to himself online as Superstar Celebrity Kurt Tay, first appeared publicly in an audition for Singapore Idol in 2006. He was later mentioned in the media multiple times for his behaviour, such as getting breast implants, carrying a World Wrestling Entertainment belt to events and participating in a street fight.