SINGAPORE — He began chatting with a girl on the messaging application Telegram in 2017 and found out she was a Secondary 2 student.

During their conversations, the 14-year-old asked Muhammad Asraf Mustaffa, who was aged 25 and an insurance agent at the time, if he could be her “sugar daddy”. She also told him she was not a virgin.

Having no sexual experience himself, he got curious. The pair ended up having consensual sex in several toilets for the handicapped, including at the Junction 8 and Velocity malls.

On Wednesday (Aug 21) in the State Courts, Asraf, who is now 27, was sentenced to 22 months’ jail after pleading guilty to three counts of sexual penetration of a minor. 

Two other similar charges, another of possessing 80 videos without a valid certificate approving their exhibition, and one more of possessing four obscene films, were taken into consideration for sentencing.

The court heard that in February 2017, Asraf became acquainted with the girl, who cannot be named due to a court order to protect her identity.

Between then and July that year, they grew closer and began sharing personal and intimate details about themselves.

In August, Asraf asked her out on a date. They agreed to have lunch and then have sex afterwards.

After arranging to meet on the afternoon of Aug 11 at Bishan MRT Station, she also reminded him to buy condoms.

On that day, they had lunch at Junction 8 mall before searching for a suitable toilet for the handicapped, where there was not much human traffic, Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Asoka Markandu told the court.

They had sex in one of the basement toilets there, before he accompanied her home to the void deck of a public housing block. She was wearing her school uniform.

They continued communicating with each other after that and having sex. Court documents showed that they also did it at Marina Barrage once.

In early September, they arranged to meet at Newton MRT Station in the late afternoon after she finished classes in school, then travelled to Novena MRT Station and had sex in one of the toilets for the handicapped at Velocity mall.

DPP Asoka sought two years’ jail for Asraf. He said that while the prosecution recognised that the sex was consensual and there was no evidence of any form of abuse of trust or emotional blackmail by Asraf, "there is a reason why we have this law in place and it is to protect minors”.

In mitigation, Asraf’s lawyer told the court that his client, who is a first-time offender, has Type 1 diabetes and helps other youth with the same condition.

For each charge of sexual penetration of a minor under 16 years old, Asraf could have been jailed up to 10 years, fined, or both.

CLARIFICATION: An earlier version of the article said the accused was sentenced to 11 months' jail. This is incorrect. The Attorney-General's Chambers have clarified that it should be 22 months.