Former national badminton player Ashton Chen to plead guilty to sex offences against underage girl

Former national badminton player Ashton Chen Yongzhao intends to plead guilty to committing consensual sexual acts with an underage girl, a district court heard on Monday (Jun 4).

Chen, 28, who was first charged in April, allegedly committed his first offence against the girl in 2014.

She was 13 years old when she allegedly performed oral sex on him at a staircase landing at Block 935 Tampines Street 91, reports The Straits Times.

She is said to have performed the same act on him at a multi-storey carpark at Block 248 Simei Street 2 between late 2015 and early 2016.

Chen is also accused of having sexual intercourse with the minor there.

He allegedly performed similar acts with the girl in a nursing room at Eastpoint Mall in Jun 2016 and she is said to have performed oral sex on him at a staircase landing at Block 120 Simei Street 1 the next month.

The nature of their relationship was not stated in court documents.

Chen is out on bail of $15,000 and will return to court on June 27.

Chen ended his professional career as a badminton men's singles player in April 2014.

He was then ranked as the men's singles world No. 69.

He reached a ranking of No. 50 at the height of his career and was Singapore's second-ranked singles player behind Derek Wong, who was then at No. 47.

Chen first made headlines in 2007 after beating Malaysia's former world No. 1 Roslin Hashim at the Asian Satellite tournament.

For each charge, offenders convicted of having consensual sex with a child below 14 years old can be jailed for up to 20 years and fined or caned.

Those convicted of having consensual sex with a minor between 14 and 15 years old can be jailed for up to 10 years and fined for each charge.