Yahoo Finance Man, 68, who sent much younger subordinate 2 porn videos fined
SINGAPORE — A shop manager sent two videos featuring nudity and sexual acts to a female subordinate who is younger than his children.
The 68-year-old man was fined $5,500 on Tuesday (30 March) after he pleaded guilty to two charges of sending obscene material to the 27-year-old woman in 2018 via electronic means.
In sentencing, District Judge Jill Tan commented that the victim's age being 10 years younger than the man's youngest child was an aggravating factor.
The man, who is divorced with two adult children, was also given a discharge amounting to an acquittal for five charges of molesting the same woman, as the offences have been compounded, the prosecution told the court.
The woman cannot be named to protect the latter's identity.
The man worked at a contact lens company and became the woman's supervisor when she joined in 2016. He was 65 then, while the woman was 25.
On 7 June 2018, the woman sent a text to her supervisor in the morning, saying that she would not be going to work. While the man did not acknowledge this text, he sent a video, nearly seven minutes long, of a heterosexual couple engaging in sex. The woman felt uncomfortable and did not reply.
Three days later, the man sent a three-minute obscene video showing a segment from an adult Japanese game show. Similarly, the woman felt uneasy about the video and did not reply.
The woman left the company by end-2018.
The prosecution submitted for a fine of $3,000 per charge while the man's lawyer Audrey Koo sought a $2,000 fine per charge.
In mitigation, Koo said that her client had cooperated with the authorities and pleaded guilty at an early stage. She said that the man had made positive contributions to society, including assisting in eye care campaigns for community users.
She also submitted character references which stated that the man had been seen as a "caring mentor", "understanding manager" and "trustworthy friend" for 36 years, and that his offence had been a "lapse of judgement".
But DJ Tan said, "The aggravating factors in this case are that you were the victim's boss and that she was far younger than you...it was indeed a serious lapse of judgment for you to have acted in this way towards her."
She noted that although the second video was shorter, the man appeared to have been "emboldened" by the woman's lack of response to the first video.
For transmitting obscene material through electronic means, the man could have been jailed up to three months, or fined, or both.
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