> 55yo renovation contractor jailed 12mths for sex with 16yo China prostitute

A RENOVATION contractor was sentenced to 12 months’ jail on Monday for paying $100 to an underaged prostitute for sex.

Tan Chye Hin, 55, pleaded guilty to getting the services of the 16-year-old China prostitute in a Geylang hotel on Aug 4.

The father of three is appealing against the sentence. His $12,000 bail was upped by another $6,000.

Last month, the pimp who abetted him in the offence, Wang Minjiang, 36, was similarly jailed 12 months by the High Court after the prosecution appealed against his original fine of $8,000.

Both Wang and his nephew, Wang Youyi, 31, had been fined for offences under the Women’s Charter.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Karen Ang Aiping had sought at least 12 months’ jail for Tan.

It was clear, she said, that the primary reason for introducing new laws in the Penal Code was to afford protection to a group of minors aged below 18 from sexual exploitation.

The Senior Minister of State (Home Affairs) Ho Peng Kee said in Parliament it was necessary for Singapore to close ranks with other countries around the world to prevent sexual exploitation of minors.

The DPP said earlier that the Wangs gave food and lodging to the the victim, now 17, and another 19-year-old China girl, who came to Singapore to work as prostitutes.

They took the two girls to a Geylang coffeeshop to wait for customers to approach them.

At times, the Wangs would help the girls in negotiating the charges for sex. Customers were charged $80 to $100 for each booking.

The two men tried to boost their business by telling people that the younger victim was only 17 years old.

On Aug 4, Minjiang received a call from Tan who said he wanted to have sex with the younger girl.

Tan came and took the victim to a nearby hotel where he paid $100 to her for sex. He could have been jailed for up to seven years and fined.

> Ex-teacher convicted of trespassing on school grounds to take kids’ photos

TOKYO — The Tokyo District Court sentenced a dismissed elementary school teacher Monday to 10 months in prison for trespassing at three other elementary schools from May to June and taking more than 250 pictures of students ‘‘out of sexual interest.’’

Toshio Watanabe, 35, was convicted of trespassing at the three primary schools—one each in Arakawa, Setagaya and Minato wards in Tokyo—while the schools were holding sports meets, to take photos of children.

Watanabe was on probation at the time as he was convicted last year of posting photos of children killed in traffic accidents on his website and was fired from a public elementary school in Hamura, western Tokyo.

Judge Daisuke Kanda said as he handed down the sentence, ‘‘In light of his career as a former teacher, he was thoughtless and selfish.’’

His defense counsel had pleaded not guilty, saying the meets are open events and there is no need to punish entry onto the premises.

Public prosecutors had demanded Watanabe get 18 months in prison.

For the photos on his website, the same court sentenced him in July last year to two and a half years in prison, suspended for five years with probation, for breaking a law banning child prostitution and child pornography as well as copyright law.

He was dismissed in disgrace after being arrested on the child pornography charge.