Man sends girl, 14, sexual messages within hours of knowing her, said he was 'miserable' and 'in pain'

A 45-year-old Singaporean male was jailed for six months on Dec 13 after pleading guilty to sexually grooming an underage girl.

Ishak Zainal befriended the 14-year-old Filipino girl, who was here visiting her father while on holiday and started sending her sexually-charged text messages mere hours after meeting her.

On May 29,  2016, Ishak approached the teenager when she went under her block to throw away some rubbish. This was reportedly the first time the pair met each other, reports The Straits Times.

They chatted and decided to become friends on Facebook. The girl went home and they began sending each other text messages.

Later, the pair met again at the void deck. This was about 45 minutes after their first encounter.

When the girl's Singapore-based father came home, he noticed that his daughter appeared nervous and asked her what had happened.

After learning about Ishak, he took her mobile phone and pretended to be his daughter to continue messaging him.

"The accused told the victim that he was 'miserable' and 'in pain' and asked what she could do.

He followed this with a message 'Can you post me your things', which was a request for the victim to convey sexually explicit photographs and videos of herself to the accused, said Deputy Public Prosecutor Chew Xin Ying.

Unaware that he was messaging the girl's father, Ishak arranged to meet her at her father's house at around 1am so that he could perform a sexual act on her.

However, her father had already notified the police, and officers ambushed Ishak the moment he stepped out of a lift near the flat.

Ishak's lawyer, Ms Wong Su-Jin, who is from the Criminal Legal Aid Scheme Fellowship, pleaded for a lighter jail sentence of 4-6 months.

"Ishak encountered (the girl) in person entirely by chance - there was no premeditation or planning."

For sexually grooming a minor, he could have been jailed for up to three years and fined.