Teen gets 21 months' probation for sending nude photo to victim's Instagram followers after failed extortion bid

SINGAPORE — Following a failed attempt to extort money from his teenage female victim, a then 16-year-old male youth followed through with his threats to send a nude photo of the young woman to all her Instagram followers.

Now aged 17, he was sentenced to a total of 21 months' probation, including four months of intensive probation on Tuesday (May 21).

He pleaded guilty in January this year to one charge of distributing or threatening to distribute an intimate image.

A similar charge was taken into consideration during sentencing.

Prior to sentencing, suitability reports for both probation and reformative training were called for, and he was found to be suitable for both.

The 17-year-old cannot be named by law as he was under the age of 18 when he committed the offence. His victim cannot be named under a court gag order to protect her identity.

WHAT HAPPENED

Investigations revealed that on June 17 last year, the offender had sent the now 17-year-old female victim a nude photograph of herself, which she had previously sent to someone she knew on the dating application "Wink".

The offender had learnt that his schoolmate had a copy of the nude photograph and while he did not know the victim personally, he had asked for a copy of the photograph along with her Instagram account details.

Court documents stated that the victim was shocked after receiving the nude photo of herself and asked the teenager to delete it.

However, he told her that he wasn't going to delete it and threatened to send it to her school principal.

When she asked the offender why he was doing this to her, he replied that he was "racist". Court documents did not elaborate on this point.

Feeling distressed, she asked the offender what he wanted and to "name his price".

He asked for S$200 as payment before raising the amount to S$300 as he was "feeling very angry" with the victim.

As she had attempted to make a video call to the offender, he continued to threaten her by saying: "u call me one more time that's it bro nvm i'm done playing with u i'm gonna send this to your school".

He also used abusive language by calling her a "fatty".

The offender eventually gave his victim an ultimatum, when she stopped replying, and instructed her to text him through Telegram or he would send her photo to every one of her Instagram followers.

Instead of following his instructions, she posted an Instagram story to her account, alerting her followers to the possibility of receiving the nude image and to "delete it and report him" for sharing a nude photo without consent and harassment.

She then sent the screenshot to the offender who became more aggressive and threatened the victim before carrying out his threat by sending copies of her nude photograph to her followers.

The offender continued to threaten and harass the victim after that and when she asked him to "stop it", he threatened to reveal what school she went to.

Even when she told him that she could get him arrested, the offender continued to taunt and threaten her by insinuating that she would get into trouble first "for sending ur nudes anyhow".

The victim eventually confided in her mother about the threats and a police report was lodged on June 18 last year.

During investigations, the offender admitted that he had threatened to send the photograph to the victim's Instagram followers as he was trying to scare the victim and to cause her psychological harm. 

'NOT A HARDENED CRIMINAL': JUDGE

Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Jocelyn Teo had argued that reformative training, rather than probation, would be a more appropriate sentence.

This is because general and specific deterrence are important for other like-minded youths, who find themselves in a similar situation, to understand the serious consequences of engaging in such conduct, said DPP Teo.

She added that the offender's conduct in threatening the victim was also egregious as his intent was to shame her.

While Deputy Principal District Judge Kessler Soh agreed with the prosecution that the youth had committed a serious offence, he recognised that he is not a "hardened criminal".

"Probation is a viable option as well and on a balance, I am inclined to give him a chance to rehabilitate through a probation order," he said.

For distributing or threatening to distribute intimate images or recording, the teenager could have been jailed for up to five years, fined, caned, or given any combination of these punishments.