Singaporean Sex Story

Mystery underage call girl

Just who was that underage call girl at the centre of the online prostitution scandal that shook some of Singapore's elite earlier this year?

In April, 51 men from their early 20s to late 40s were charged for having paid sex with a 17-year-old call girl – 18 is the legal age for prostitution in Singapore. Most of them claimed they were unaware the girl was a minor.

Among the biggest names tagged in the case are prominent high-society figure Howard Shaw (recently released early from prison for good behaviour), former UBS top banker and Swiss national Juerg Buergin, an ex-school principal, an ex-teacher, a senior civil servant and a naval officer.

The girl, who was working for a now-defunct online prostitution website when the alleged offences took place between September 2010 and February 2011, remains unnamed due to a court order but the online space was not without its speculations. Purported pictures and descriptions of the girl in question, whom one defence lawyer called a “hardcore prostitute”, quickly spread like wildfire.

Among the hot topics debated on online forums were the sky high prices the call girl charged (revealed to be between $500 and $850 per session); the cover up of her actual age; her background; and unsurprisingly, why she hasn’t been named and shamed given that she was a willing party.

Teachers who erred

Turned out the 51 cases weren’t the only reported underage-sex cases in the past year (of 'Lust', as coined by readers of a local Chinese daily).

2012 also saw a string of cases of professional misconduct, many of them involving teachers.

Besides the ex-educators involved in the online vice ring scandal (on previous page), another, National University of Singapore (NUS) law professor Tey Tsun Hang, also faces charges of having corruptly obtained gifts and sex from his 23-year-old student in exchange for better grades.

Most recently, former River Valley High School principal Steven Koh Yong Chiah, who is currently assisting investigations by the CPIB, has also been linked to a woman in the educational services industry.

In the last three months alone, as many teachers – two married females and one male – were charged with having sex with their underaged students, who were then aged 13 to 15. All parties in the cases were not named due to a gag order issued by the court.

Let’s hope the launch of the new teachers’ code of conduct next year – that aims to give our educators clearer guidelines on what is acceptable behaviour – will change things for the better.

Scholars who erred

You know who we’re talking about: Jonathan Wong, Darinne Ko and Alvin Tan.

What connects them: sex, again.

Former Ministry of Education (MOE) scholar Jonathan Wong was sentenced to five years’ jail after he was found guilty of five out of 10 counts of sexual offences with an underage girl. The 25-year-old was previously expelled by UK’s University of York after he was caught for possessing child pornography, and had his government scholarship revoked in 2010. Wong was diagnosed a paedophile in 2011.

NUS Faculty Award recipient Darinne Ko gained notoriety after she was named the student in the centre of the sex-for-grades scandal involving married law professor Tey Tsun Hang. The former district judge allegedly had sex with the 23-year-old twice in 2010 and obtained expensive gifts from her in exchange for showing favour in her grades. Ko, who 'strenuously denies any corrupt wrongdoing,' will 'appear in court to tell her side of the story when the time comes,' her lawyers said earlier. The corruption trial against Tey will begin shortly on Jan 10.

And of course, there’s the fame-hungry Alvin Tan. The controversial NUS law scholar-sex blogger and his Malaysian girlfriend shot to overnight fame with the X-rated (now-defunct) blog “Sumptuous Erotica” in September. While adamant he’s done nothing wrong, the vocal 24-year-old apologised to NUS a month later for implicating the school. NUS said it meted out disciplinary action against Tan on Nov 7 but made no mention of his punishment, stirring up another storm of controversy. A local paper later reported that Tan had his scholarship terminated.

Michael Palmer

With his shock resignation on Dec 12, former Parliamentary Speaker and MP Michael Palmer became the second person this year to leave his seat for personal indiscretions, in the latest sex scandal to hit our usually clean and conservative city-state.

The 44-year-old married father of one publicly confessed to a “serious judgement of error” – “I had a relationship with a member of the People’s Association staff working in Pasir Ris-Punggol GRC,” he revealed.

Palmer said he resigned “to avoid further embarrassment to the People’s Action Party (PAP) and to Parliament'.

His lover was identified as 33-year-old Laura Ong, who quickly became the target of online attacks. A local report two days later revealed that Ong, who is married but separated from her husband, was also dating another man during her alleged one-year affair with Palmer. Speculation was rife that Ong’s boyfriend was the whistleblower.

A Punggol East by-election?

Talks also turned to the possibility of a by-election in the newly vacated Punggol East single-seat, which the PM has addressed and said he would “carefully consider”.

Should it happen, the by-election looks set to have at least six candidates – a representative each from the ruling PAP, Workers’ Party, Reform Party, Singapore Democratic Alliance and the Singapore Democratic Party, as well as former Singapore People’s Party member Benjamin Pwee.

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