12 years' jail for sexually exploiting five boys

12 years' jail for sexually exploiting five boys

A serial paedophile was sentenced to 12 years in prison yesterday, for 27 sexual offences he had committed in 2012 and last year on five primary school boys, in a case of sexual exploitation that the court called "heinous" and "abhorrent".

Lok Kwok, 59, lured the boys into his Bukit Batok flat with promises of computer games and television. Over four months, he got them to touch or kiss him, had a seven-year-old perform oral sex on him, and took photographs and videos as keepsakes.

To keep the boys happy, he gave them gifts including a toy gun, game cards and a red packet containing cash.

Lok was caught after a school counsellor made a police report. He was sentenced after pleading guilty to seven charges under the Children and Young Persons Act and one under the Penal Code, with 19 other various offences taken into consideration.

Passing sentence, Community Court Judge Lim Keng Yeow said: "I am mindful that the sentence against (Lok) must reflect the extent to which we as a society utterly denounce such heinous conduct and want to see our children protected from such abhorrent acts."

Judge Lim noted how Lok had told his psychiatrist he had not used force to get the children to perform the acts, but said this was not a mitigating factor. "No amount of readiness on the part of the children to do what he asked could ever excuse Lok's actions," the judge said.

The maximum penalty for sexually penetrating someone under the age of 14 is a jail term of 20 years, and a fine or caning. For each count of committing or procuring an indecent act with a child, Lok could have been jailed for up to five years and fined up to $10,000.

pohian@sph.com.sg

This website is best viewed using the latest versions of web browsers.