Rapist preyed on at least 20 girls and women in catfishing 'sextortion' scheme

SINGAPORE: A man preyed on at least 20 young girls and women for sexual gratification in what the prosecution called an elaborate "sextortion" scheme.

Lin Rongxin, a 34-year-old married man and father of one, used a photo of another young man and chatted up young teenagers in his catfishing ruse. 

After getting his hands on the victims' compromising photos or videos, he would either threaten them into giving him money or performing sex acts on him.

At times, he tricked victims into having sex with him while under the guise of another persona. He would pose as both "blackmailer" and "saviour", with three victims engaging in a "warped" relationship with him in this manner.

The man also threatened three victims into secretly filming other girls and women who were changing and showering, expanding his count of victims.

Lin pleaded guilty on Monday (Nov 28) to seven charges including rape, making anonymous threats and instigating a victim into making voyeuristic films. Another 57 charges were taken into consideration.

The court heard that Lin, a China national, was a machinery technician who had worked in Singapore for 12 years until he was arrested.

He stayed in a dormitory with his wife, and has a son with her.

From 2018 to Jun 28, 2019, Lin met his victims on the WeChat or TanTan dating applications. He did not use his real identity or face, instead using a photo of a 19-year-old Chinese man.

Lin would chat with his victims under a persona before asking them to send him revealing photos or videos. He would also ask them to engage in sex acts on live video.

He would sometimes save or record the photos and videos.

Lin would later threaten the victims with the nudes he had of them, saying they had to perform sex acts on live video or give him money, or he would leak the footage.

In some cases, he demanded that the victims have sex with another man - who was really himself.

Lin targeted young girls aged between 14 and 19, who were often from China but who were studying in Singapore.

One of the victims was 14 when she met Lin on the TanTan app. Lin used a persona and asked the victim to be his girlfriend. 

He also created another profile and chatted the same girl up, before using his first profile to accuse her of "infidelity". 

He persuaded the girl into sending him nudes, but later used that to extort her of money.

Out of fear that Lin would distribute her nudes, the girl performed sex acts for him on an almost nightly basis on at least 10 occasions.

She borrowed money from her cousin in China and forwarded the sum of 5,200 yuan (S$995) to Lin, but he demanded a much larger sum.

When she told him she did not have the cash, Lin asked her to have sex with him, but she refused as he had blackmailed her.

Lin then said he could "sell" her virginity to another person in exchange for not leaking her nudes, and she agreed. However, there was no "other person".

HE POSED AS SAVIOUR TO HELP GIRL

Lin posed as this "saviour" figure and met the victim at an industrial building, where he raped her in the men's toilet.

He then assured the girl that he would settle the threats and debts from her blackmailer.

After raping the victim, Lin texted her and showed her concern, causing the girl to feel grateful to him. She felt that the first person she had sex with should be her boyfriend, and began dating Lin.

Lin claimed that he had spent 260,000 yuan trying to purchase her nudes from her blackmailer, and she felt indebted to him. They had sex multiple times during their relationship.

Despite dating the victim, Lin continued to pose as her blackmailer and sought money from the girl.

He scrolled through the girl's friends on WeChat and found a 14-year-old friend of hers attractive. He demanded that the girl film her friend while she was showering and send him the video, and she complied.

Lin asked the victim to film her teenage flatmates multiple times, and she agreed. A total of 90 such videos were found in his devices when he was arrested.

His crimes were uncovered when the victim accidentally sent a voyeuristic video of her flatmate to the flatmate instead of Lin.

The flatmate confronted her and called the police. The victim panicked and told Lin what happened. He told her to take the blame as it would get him into trouble, and she did so.

However, her father flew into Singapore after she was arrested and grew suspicious when he listened to her story about her blackmailer and saviour.

Lin was arrested in a sting operation when he met the victim to have sex with her.

After realising the truth, the victim felt silly and used. Her grades fell from Bs to Ds and she had to retake her examinations. She sought psychiatric treatment but continued to suffer from severe insomnia as of February 2021.
 
The man's crimes were so numerous and complicated that the court took all morning to have documents read to him, and the prosecution included an infographic and timeline in documents to aid the judge.

SHOCKING, EVIL AND DISGUSTING: PROSECUTOR

Deputy Public Prosecutor Chong Kee En and Colin Ng asked for at least 22 to 28 years' jail and 24 strokes of the cane.

Mr Chong said the scale of Lin's offences is "shocking", with the nature of his offending "truly quite evil and disgusting".

Lin was suffering from herpes and Hepatitis B while he was having sex with five victims, he said.

Lin's lawyers, Mr Peter Ong and Mr Marcus Lim, said their client has shown remorse and even cried when talking to them in prison.

According to Mr Ong, Lin said "what else can (I) say" and did not want to mitigate. However, Mr Ong said the defence has to mitigate for him as officers of the court. 

The lawyer asked for the lower end of the jail term asked for by the prosecution, and not exceeding 25 years.

The judge adjourned sentencing to December.