Man who fled Singapore for 10 years after sexually preying on a boy gets jail

SINGAPORE: A man who fled Singapore in 2010 before he could be charged for preying sexually on a young boy was sentenced to five-and-a-half years' jail on Monday (Jul 12), more than a year after Malaysian authorities handed him over.

Lim Leong Sze, 57, was given the sentence for an old offence under Section 377 of carnal intercourse against the order of nature. Another six charges were considered in sentencing.

The court heard that Lim was a 41-year-old debt collector at the time of the offence in 2005. His victim was 14 and in Secondary 2 when Lim initiated an online chat with him on a platform known as MIRC.

Lim posed as a woman in her 20s and chatted the boy up, before moving to exchange messages on the MSN platform. Lim asked the boy to show his face and strip naked.

The boy showed Lim his face, but refused to take off his clothes, saying his dad was home. Lim persisted in asking the boy to show him his naked body, and the boy performed a sex act on himself at Lim's request, thinking Lim was a woman.

The victim did not realise that Lim had filmed his sex act. After this, Lim called the boy's home phone and said he had a video of him masturbating.

He said if the boy did not repeat the act, Lim would post the video online or tell his father about it. The boy complied with his demands.

Under the threat of the video, the boy agreed to go out with Lim. Lim drove them to a food outlet in Geylang, where he showed the boy the video.

He took the boy to his office and asked the boy if he wanted to prey on other boys, but the victim kept quiet.

Lim later taught the boy how to carry out a massage, before forcing oral sex on the boy. The boy was shocked and moved away, telling Lim that he was uncomfortable.

Lim took the boy to a pub and later sent him home after offering him money and a phone to contact him with. Lim asked the boy to masturbate again on Sep 25, 2005.

The boy refused and reported the matter to the police two days later. Lim was arrested on Sep 29, 2005, but fled the country shortly before he was set to be charged.

In February 2020, Malaysian authorities repatriated Lim to Singapore, and he has been remanded since.

The prosecution asked for at least six years' jail, pointing out that the case involved non-consensual fellatio between an adult male offender and a minor.

Lim had also engaged in a "premeditated and planned strategy to corrupt and sexually exploit the young victim", said Deputy Public Prosecutors Chua Ying-Hong and Vincent Ong.

For carnal intercourse against the order of nature, Lim could have been jailed either for life, or for up to 10 years and fined.