'Depraved sexual predator' given 31 years' jail, caning for preying on 20 victims in 'sextortion' scheme

SINGAPORE: A man who preyed on 20 young girls and women in an elaborate "sextortion" scheme was sentenced to 31 years in jail and a maximum of 24 strokes of the cane on Monday (Dec 5).

High Court judge Hoo Sheau Peng said she had "no hesitation" in calling 34-year-old Lin Rongxin a "depraved sexual predator". 

"He has harmed and affected lives, not just of the 20 victims but of their families. This most reprehensible of conduct calls for the most severe of punishment for the accused," said Justice Hoo in an oral judgment issued on Monday.

Lin, a married man and father of one, had used a photo of a younger man to catfish teenage girls. 

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

He also tricked victims into having sex with him under the guise of another persona. In one of the cases,  he pretended to be the girl's "saviour" by assuring her that he would settle the threats and demands from her blackmailer, which was also him. 

Lin, a China national, earlier pleaded guilty to three charges of rape, three of criminal intimidation and one of voyeurism. He had 57 charges of a similar nature taken into consideration for his sentencing.

Of the 20 victims, 15 were identified to be between 14 and 19 years old. None can be named to protect their identity. 

In sentencing Lin, Justice Hoo said that the scale and severity of Lin's offences "cannot be overstated". 

She noted that around a third of the 64 charges involve serious sexual offences such as rape and sexual penetration of a minor.

Lin was a machinery technician who worked in Singapore for 12 years until he was arrested. He stayed in a dormitory with his wife.

From 2018 to June 2019, Lin met his victims on WeChat or the TanTan dating application. He used a photo of a 19-year-old man instead of his real identity.

Lin would chat with his victims under a persona before asking them to send him explicit photos or videos. He would also ask them to engage in sex acts on live video, sometimes recording or saving these clips.

He then threatened them into performing further sexual acts on live video or asked for money, saying he would otherwise leak the footage. In some cases, he demanded that the victims have sex with another man, who was actually himself.

Under the guise of another persona, Lin tricked at least four victims into having sex with him, or filming their friends for his perverted pleasure, the judge noted. 

"As part of his modus operandi, he used emotional blackmail and manipulation. He was cunning, opportunistic and manipulative," she added. 

He managed to convince one of his victims to film her 14-year-old friend while she was showering. A total of 90 videos of the victim's flatmates were found in Lin's phone when he was arrested. 

His offences came to light 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. 

Lin was arrested during a sting operation when he met the victim for sex. 

VULNERABLE VICTIMS

The judge took into account numerous aggravating factors. 

Lin had exploited vulnerable victims who were not only young, but foreign students who had no immediate family members in Singapore, she said. 

He also displayed a significant degree of premeditation and planning through his fictitious personas. In one case, Lin pretended to be in debt to trick the girl into having sex with his "creditor". 

The judge noted that a high degree of coercion was used to leverage one of the victim's sexually compromising photos to get her to do his bidding. 

There was also a high degree of intrusion and harm to several victims, one of whom was so distraught by the prospect of her nude videos being leaked that she suffered insomnia and displayed self-harm tendencies. 

The accused had also put the victims at real risk of pregnancy and of contracting sexually transmitted diseases as he had chosen not to use condoms. He later tested positive for herpes and Hepatitis B. 

Justice Hoo added: "The accused managed to commit the offences over the course of about one-and-a-half years. He was relentless in continuing his scheme, despite the desperate pleas of some of the victims to be spared."

The sole mitigating factor in Lin's case was his plea of guilt, the judge said, as it relieved multiple victims of the ordeal of testifying in court. 

"My final remarks are these. It is my hope that the victims will find a measure of closure with the conclusion of the case. I also hope that the plights of the victims serve to warn young people to exercise the utmost of caution in their online interactions," said the judge. 

"When in trouble, you should seek help, support and advice from trusted sources as quickly as possible."