Jail for ex-teacher who showed porn to student; claims it was to help teen cope with self-harm

SINGAPORE — After finding out that his student was engaging in self-harm, a teacher responded to the teen by telling him to masturbate as a way to cope with his negative feelings.

The 49-year-old man, who then showed the 17-year-old boy pornographic videos, was sentenced to 54 days' jail on Friday (July 7).

The boy was in year six — the equivalent of year two in junior college. 

The man is no longer teaching at the school, court documents stated. 

He had pleaded guilty in March to one charge of showing sex videos to the student. One other charge was taken into consideration for sentencing. 

The man and his victim cannot be named along with the school's name or what the teacher taught, due to a gag order to protect the identity of the victim. 

WHAT HAPPENED 

The accused, who had been teaching for over 22 years, had been the boy's form teacher since 2020. 

On Jan 28, 2021, the victim's mother sent an email to the accused and told him that her son wanted to skip school as he felt ostracised at school.

In response, the man said that he had also intended to have a word with the teen as he noticed the latter was "very withdrawn, less cheerful and always looked tired". 

On the same day, the teacher met the victim after class.

During their conversation, the teen confided that he had been having negative thoughts and was engaging in self-harm to cope with his emotions.

Assessing that the boy was suicidal, the accused gave his personal mobile number to the teen but told him to save it under a different name.

He also told the boy to keep his phone safe as their conversation was "not exactly legit" and to contact him if the victim needed someone to talk to. 

A few days later, the teacher handed the victim a self-help book after school. 

During their chat which lasted three hours, the man told the victim that speaking as a friend and not a teacher, males of his age had only two ways to destress — "medication and masturbation". 

Upon hearing this, the teen felt uncomfortable but did not know how to verbalise his discomfort, court documents stated.

The accused then asked the teen if he had watched pornographic material before and added that "as unprofessional as it sounded", he would rather the victim watch porn and sexually stimulate himself instead of engaging in self-harm. 

He then showed the teen some links to pornographic websites and clicked on one of the links. 

OFFERED TO BUY SEX TOY 

The pair met again on Feb 6 that year at the teacher's home. 

They did not inform the boy's parents of their meeting as the teacher was aware that this contravened the school's rules about interactions between teachers and students. 

Over dinner, the man said that he had gone to Bali with a former student for a holiday, where they paid two sex workers and had a foursome.

During their meeting, the man also "kept plying the victim with soju", court documents stated. 

The man drank more than the victim and began to cry. He then placed his hands on the boy's arm and chest, moving them around for about 10 minutes.

After that, the man said that he was "sad" and asked for a hug, to which the boy obliged. 

Throughout the night, the teacher asked the victim sexual questions and offered to buy the latter a sex toy as a birthday present. 

He also showed the boy a video of himself having sex with a woman and another one of him having sex with a few people in Bali. 

Feeling uncomfortable, the boy tried to avoid watching them. 

The man then showed another explicit video involving overtly sexualised Japanese anime characters.

The teen grimaced as the videos were playing. 

At about 11.35pm, the victim went home. 

When he got home, the teen began to feel that the teacher-student boundary had been crossed and that there was "some immorality" in the man's behavior. 

The next day, he told his mother what had happened and the school authorities were informed. 

The school's vice principal then filed a police report and the man was arrested on Feb 9 in 2021.

He resigned from his teaching position that month. 

Those found guilty of showing a sexual image to a person aged between 16 and 18 can be jailed up to two years, fined or both.