Underage sex case: Pimp's sister can't be charged as she's not here

SINGAPORE - She had lured the teenage girl with the promise of a job, only for her brother to force the 17-year-old Chinese girl into prostitution.

The brother, Chinese national Tang Huisheng, 37, who acted as the girl's pimp here, was arrested in June.

He has claimed trial to seven charges relating to the prostitution of an underage girl and is due to appear in court on Friday.

During the sentencing of two more men who had commercial sex with the girl, District Judge Hamidah Ibrahim asked prosecutors if Tang's sister, Ms Tang Huiying, had been dealt with.

She was told Ms Tang had not entered Singapore and so could not be charged here.

A total of 24 men, comprising 15 Singaporeans, eight Chinese nationals and a Malaysian working here, have been charged with having paid sex with a girl below the age of 18.

With yesterday's sentencing of Wu Delong, 35, and Yang Dong, 37, to 11 weeks' jail each, 13 men have been convicted so far.

The two drivers from China had pleaded guilty to one count each of paying for sex with the girl.

They had seen the girl soliciting for customers at the junction of Geylang Lorong 22 and Geylang Road and separately hired her and had sex with her at the nearby Min Wah Hotel.

When the men asked for her age, the girl said she was 19.

The court was told how Ms Tang had lured the girl into prostitution.

The girl earned about 1,000 yuan (S$210) a month at a hairdressing salon in her hometown in Shandong, China. But both her and her mother's earnings were insufficient to pay off the debts incurred by her late father for his cancer treatment.

Earning money

To help her earn more money, her boss at the salon introduced her to Ms Tang, who asked her to solicit outside the casinos in Macau for VIP customers.

But the deal Ms Tang cut with the girl was hard for her to earn money as she had to draw in high-rollers willing to change at least HK$500,000 (S$82,000) for chips in the casino. The girl was promised 1 per cent commission of the amount each client changed.

Ms Tang told the girl that it would be hard for her to find customers and suggested that her brother teach the girl how to persuade customers.

When the girl met her brother, he drugged her and made her his sex slave before forcing her to come to Singapore to be a prostitute.

She was made to walk the lorongs of Geylang and Tang took all her prostitution earnings.

The New Paper understands that investigations are ongoing and more men are expected to be charged.

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