He threatened to post topless photos of girl, 14

Having sweet-talked a young girl into sending him a topless picture of herself last year, Ng Kai Boon made her send him more by threatening to post it on the Internet.

He repeated the threat in March this year, demanding that she accept his "friend request" on Facebook. But this time, the 14-year-old went to the police.

Yesterday, Ng, 21, was sentenced to 15 months' probation after pleading guilty to criminally intimidating the girl. Another similar charge was taken into consideration. The full-time national serviceman was ordered to do 80 hours of community service, and his parents were required to sign a S$5,000 bond to ensure his good behaviour.

A community court had earlier heard that Ng came to know the girl last year in March through social media, and started chatting with her on WhatsApp after exchanging phone numbers.

It was a few days after this that he convinced her to send him the first topless photo of herself, and later used it as leverage to get her to send him more such photos.

She blocked him from her contact list and broke off contact but on March 21 this year, Ng tried to add her on Facebook.

He sent her a message when she refused, threatening to circulate the pictures if she did not accept.

During investigations, Ng said he had threatened his victim "out of fun" and had not carried out the threats. For threatening the girl with injury to her reputation intending to cause her alarm, he could have been fined and jailed for up to two years.

This article was first published on July 12, 2014.
Get a copy of The Straits Times or go to straitstimes.com for more stories.