A 31-year-old Singaporean man was today jailed for four years and eight months for organising a commercial sex tour with a minor abroad, becoming the first man to be sentenced in the country for such a crime.
Chan Chun Hong was also fined SGD8,000 for having obscene films at his home on March last year.
Chan had pleaded guilty to 12 of 145 charges, mostly of transmitting obscene material online.
He became the first man to be convicted on February 6 of organising a commercial sex tour overseas.
Chan who is also known as Chris was arrested on March 1 last year at Changi Airport.
Police established his identity after receiving information from the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in January 2013 about a Singaporean distributing child pornography.
Email exchanges between Chan, a paedophile, and other users suggested that he had engaged in child sex tourism overseas, The Straits Times reported.
While passing sentence, District Judge Siva Shanmugam said the legislative intent behind the creation of offences under section 376D of the Penal Code was to discourage demand for child sex tourism and prevent the sexual exploitation of young children.
The judge noted that by virtue of his actions, Chan was "creating and enhancing demand for sex with children".
The prosecution had sought a jail sentence of at least six years for Chan.
For organising a tour for sex with a minor under 18 years old outside Singapore or distributing information to promote such conduct, Chan could have been jailed for up to 10 years and/or fined on each offence.
