SINGAPORE — A 24-year-old man was sentenced to 18 weeks’ jail on Tuesday (Sept 15) for uploading explicit videos of his ex-girlfriend online, and for cheating S$521 from almost a dozen people who wanted to buy a Nintendo Switch game.

The man, a Singaporean, cannot be named to protect his ex-girlfriend’s identity. 

He pleaded guilty to five charges of distributing obscene material and cheating, with another 10 similar charges considered for sentencing.

The court heard that when he was dating his ex-girlfriend, who is now 19, he had taken many videos of them having sex or engaging in sexual acts.

She had consented to the sex but told him to delete the videos and warned him not to circulate them. But he did just the opposite once they had broken up.

In November 2018, he posted two of the videos on micro-blogging platform Tumblr without her consent. Her face and private parts were visible in the videos.

He also admitted to including her name in his post so that others would be able to identify her.

Some of his friends saw the videos on Tumblr and asked him to forward them the original files, which he did “without any qualms”, Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Samyata Ravindran said.

The victim later told her friend that many people had begun asking her for sexual favours and harassing her. She added that her ex-boyfriend still had her mother’s old iPhone, which she had lent to him while they were still together.

Feeling aggrieved for her, her friend confronted him on the evening of Jan 30 last year and asked him to return the mobile phone, but he refused to do so.

The friend called the police, who found snippets of the obscene videos on the old iPhone.

“Although the accused initially denied transmitting these videos online, he eventually admitted to his repugnant actions,” DPP Samyata added.

Separately, in June and July last year, the man cheated 10 users on e-marketplace Carousell who wanted to buy copies of the Nintendo Switch game, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.

He had been selling copies of the games legitimately, but continued to accept orders even after running out of stock. The victims transferred between S$50 and S$55 to him as payment.

He did not allow them to do so through CarouPay — a system on Carousell that only releases payment to sellers once the buyers have received the items.

After one victim had paid S$53, the accused claimed that he had mailed the game to the buyer, then lied that he had been hospitalised to explain the delays.

For transmitting an obscene video, he could have been jailed up to three months or fined, or both.

For cheating, he could have been jailed up to 10 years and fined.