Monster mentor

SINGAPORE - She was a troubled 15-year-old student. He was a 27-year-old journalist who acted as mentor to her in a media club.

When she confided in him about her clinical depression, he exploited her trust by gradually conditioning her for sex.

Eisen Teo Guan Kuan was so bold that he took the girl to his home, introduced her to his wife and then had sex with her while his unsuspecting wife was baking in the kitchen.

He had earlier got the girl to perform oral sex on him in a male toilet cubicle at Fort Canning Park.

Yesterday, the long-haired Teo, now 29, was sentenced to 18 months jail for two counts of sex with the girl, who cannot be named as she is a minor.

A similar charge was taken into consideration during sentencing.

District Judge Hamidah Ibrahim told Teo: "It is audacious that you committed the act when your wife was just metres away from you."

The former Straits Times journalist was part of a team that produced weekly magazines for schools, including the "IN" magazine for secondary school students.

He also conducted student activities for the "IN Crowd" media club, which met weekly at *Scape mall to produce content for the magazine.

In 2011, the girl, then 14, joined the club as a student journalist.

Teo later came across her blog and found out that she was depressed, suffered from insomnia and was bullied in school.

From then on, he paid special attention to her through e-mail, WhatsApp and Facebook messages. She in turn confided in him about her depression.

INVOLVED

Despite being aware of her age, he became romantically involved with her and they met regularly as a couple outside of their club meetings.

As they became more intimate, they would hug and kiss, and Teo would caress her while on their dates.

Despite being married since 2010, he lied to her that he had a girlfriend, but was not in a committed relationship.

He changed his story in 2012, telling her he had married his girlfriend to get a HDB flat.

Teo also gained the trust of the girl's family, who knew nothing about their intimacy and saw him as her mentor in the club.

He grew close to her parents after warning them about one of her attempted suicides and persuading them to send her to hospital.

On one of their dates in early 2012, they went to Fort Canning Park where he suggested that she give him oral sex. As she was unsure what to do, Teo coached her for 10 minutes.

In June that year, he invited her to his Serangoon flat on the pretext of painting it.

While his wife was baking in the kitchen, they started kissing on the sofa bed in his study.

When Teo asked the girl, who was a virgin, if she wanted to go "all the way", she consented.

They then had sex before Teo took her to a nearby mall, where her parents picked her up.

Two days later, she tried to kill herself by slitting her wrists and swallowing Panadol pills in a toilet after a media club meeting at *Scape mall.

At the hospital, her father became suspicious when he noticed the close behaviour between Teo and his daughter. He confronted Teo, who denied any relationship with her.

LEWD MESSAGES

The father and his elder daughter later went through the girl's mobile phone and found lewd messages between the two.

When the father called Teo on his phone, he did not answer. He then told his lawyer to tell Teo to stop all contact with his daughter.

Months later, the girl revealed her sexual acts with Teo to her elder sister.

As she still had depression, her mother took her to California for three months for a change of environment. The girl made a police report when she returned to Singapore.

In court, Teo, who is now a history researcher, was expressionless and silent as the facts of the case were read out.

But Deputy Public Prosecutor Amanda Chung had harsh words for his actions, including "repugnant" and a "grievous abuse of trust". Likening their relationship to that of "a teacher and student", she said Teo had abused his "position of authority" to make her "emotionally dependent" on him and "gradually condition" her for sex. (See report at right.)

In mitigation, Teo's lawyer, Mr Mathew Kurian, said his client had accepted that he was wrong and was remorseful.

An elderly man, believed to be Teo's family member, was present in court but declined to be interviewed. Teo's wife did not show up.

Teo was released on $5,000 bail and will start serving his sentence when he surrenders to the court on June 24.

Text messages he sent to victim

The prosecution highlighted several WhatsApp messages Eisen Teo sent to the victim that were "explicit about his lewd desire to engage in sexual activities" with her and showed he was grooming her for "more sexually adventurous acts of Bondage Discipline Sadism Masochism:

Can't stop thinking about what we did today.

Again you did it like you were doing it forever. What an awesome student.

I'll teach you more the next time round.

This article was first published on June 10, 2014.
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