Badminton team coach who convinced teen student to have sex with him jailed 3 years

SINGAPORE: A badminton team coach who had sexual relations with a secondary school student he had trained was jailed for three years on Thursday (May 23). 

The man, then 29, had groomed the girl, then 15, by asking her intimate questions. He then took advantage of her in the car park of a club with sports facilities in 2019.

Now 33, the man pleaded guilty to two out of three counts of sexual penetration of a minor under 16. The remaining count was taken into consideration for his sentence. 

The victim and accused cannot be named due to a gag order to protect her identity. 

The accused had been employed as a badminton team coach between 2017 and June 2019. The victim, then in Secondary 1, joined the badminton team in 2017 and knew the man as a coach. 

Between March and April 2017, the accused and the victim started following each other on Instagram and began messaging daily. 

Eventually, the accused began taking the victim home after practice and also took her out for meals. He additionally conducted free private coaching sessions for her. 

In 2018, when the victim was about 14, the accused started holding her hands in public, as well as hugged and kissed her in his car. 

“The accused’s care and attention towards the victim made her feel special. The accused told her that they could only be in an ‘unofficial’ relationship as he was already married and the victim agreed to this arrangement,” the prosecution said. 

After the victim turned 15 in 2019, the accused started asking her intimate questions. He sent her a checklist of questions, including if she had sex before. 

When the accused asked if he could have sex with her, the girl declined. The accused, however, persisted in his requests for sex and she eventually agreed. 

Meanwhile, the principal and the Head of Department for Co-Curricular Activities and Physical Education at the girl’s secondary school were notified about inappropriate behavior from the accused in April 2019.

The accused had sent inappropriate messages to students, including girls who were not from the badminton team. 

The principal spoke to seven students, with two saying they received inappropriate messages in 2018. 

The messages commented on the looks and figures of other girls in the school, asked if the student had watched pornography, and questioned a student on the extent of her relationship with her boyfriend. 

In his messages, the accused sent pictures of girls in bikinis or underwear. He also asked if the student would let him take photographs of her in similar clothing. After internal investigations, the accused was terminated as a badminton coach in July 2019. 

SEXUAL ACTS WITH VICTIM

In September 2019, the accused took the victim to his car which was parked at a club with sports facilities. 

He then performed sexual acts on her before having sex with her. 

While he wore a condom initially, he removed it midway during the act. When the victim asked him why, the accused responded “with a laugh” and told her that “it did not feel as nice when wearing a condom”, the prosecution said in court documents. 

The accused ended the session when it was time to go for his coaching. He held badminton coaching sessions in the same club. 

After this incident, the two continued to text, with the victim expressing her worries about getting pregnant. The accused told her not to worry and asked if she could meet him again to have sex, but she refused. 

She agreed to a private badminton training session at the same club later that month. Before this session, the accused asked for her to perform a sexual act on him and she agreed. 

“The victim agreed to engage in the sexual acts with the accused as she felt indebted to him for his kindness,” the prosecution said. 

After the two sexual encounters, the pair drifted apart and only contacted each other occasionally. 

The victim began realising that the accused’s actions were wrong and occasionally texted him to tell him that she felt “dirty” for what had happened. She hoped to elicit an apology from him as she wanted closure, said the prosecution. 

“However, the accused refused to apologise and responded by stating that what he did was to care for her,”  the prosecution continued. 

The victim grew depressed and sought help from her school counsellors in 2022. She could not decide whether to lodge a police report against him. 

She eventually did so on Jul 27, 2022, fearing that others might fall prey to the accused’s advances. 

The man was arrested the next day, but he had deleted all his text messages with the victim. He eventually came clean about what he had done. 

For sexual penetration of a minor under 16, an offender may be jailed up to 10 years, fined, or both.