SINGAPORE — A 39-year-old man who previously committed a string of sex offences against eight women, and most recently two teenage girls, was jailed two-and-a-half years on Friday (Feb 19).

Lawrence Goh Koon Yong, a Singaporean, pleaded guilty in late 2019 to molesting a schoolgirl then aged 13 and sexually propositioning a teenager who was then 19 years old earlier that year. 

He has been in remand since being arrested for the latter offence, which means his sentence was backdated to Oct 11 in 2019.

The court earlier heard that Goh targeted the older girl on the evening of Sept 2, 2019. She had been on the way home when he entered the lift with her, getting so close that his upper arm touched hers.

He then asked the girl in Chinese: “Do you want to do?”, meaning that he wanted to have sex with her.

Feeling scared and wanting to escape, she quickly left the lift and gave Goh her phone number, suggesting that he arrange a meeting the next day.

She immediately told her father what had happened upon returning home.

About an hour later, Goh called and told her to meet him at the void deck of her Housing and Development Board (HDB) block of flats the following night. 

After discussing it with her father, the girl pretended to agree to the meeting. Her father then contacted the police.

The next night, when Goh called her to say he was there, she alerted the police who soon arrived and nabbed him.

But Goh struck again a month later, on Oct 8, 2019. TODAY understands that he was not out on bail at the time and it is unclear if he was under investigation.

He spotted the 13-year-old girl in her school uniform while she was walking home from school on her own through a HDB void deck. 

Goh approached her from behind, asking if she was in Secondary 1.

She told him "yes" and walked away, but he followed her and asked if she wanted to go to a dark corner to study. 

He also asked her if she had a boyfriend and in a bid to protect herself, she told him she did.

He then told her he wanted to be her boyfriend and grabbed her waist. She pushed him away and ran home.

In an unrelated offence, Goh stole a pair of New Balance shoes outside a flat on Commonwealth Crescent, claiming that he did this to replace his spoilt ones.

For outraging the modesty of a minor, he could have been jailed up to five years and fined or caned.

For insulting a woman’s modesty, he could have been jailed up to a year or fined, or receive both punishments.