Teacher used fake online identities to send victims obscene materials, bought sex toy for teen

Shaffiq Alkhatib
The Straits Times
Oct 5, 2023

A male secondary school teacher went online using fake identities, including that of a woman, as he wanted other netizens to share their sexual experiences with him.

Tay Tong Wei, 36, who taught at a school from 2013 to September 2019, sent sexually explicit videos and pictures to multiple victims of both sexes who were aged between 15 and 20 at the time of the offences.

The former teacher pleaded guilty on Thursday to six counts of distributing obscene material by electronic means. He also admitted to one count of instigating one of his victims to do likewise. Forty other charges will be considered during sentencing.

Tay, who is now a private tutor, committed the offences between 2015 and 2019. His victims included three men and three women, who cannot be named because of a gag order to protect their identities.

The prosecution said that some time in 2013 or 2014, Tay discovered that he derived pleasure from chatting with others about their sexual experiences.

He then set up a Facebook profile, claiming to be a woman called Jasmin. He also set up profiles under the name of “Mike” on Facebook and Snapchat.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Sheldon Lim said: “The fake social media profiles were, at all times, under the sole control of the accused.

“The accused created (them) with the intention of talking to strangers about sexual topics. The accused hoped that these sexual conversations would lead to these strangers sharing their sexual experiences with him.”

While posing as Jasmin in November 2015, he came across the Facebook profile of a 17-year-old girl and asked to be her online friend.

The teenager, who was referred to as V1 in court documents, accepted the request, and they started chatting.

DPP Lim told the court: “Jasmin then started broaching various sexual topics with V1.

“Due to the accused repeatedly exposing her to sexual topics, and because V1 thought that she was talking to another girl of the same age, V1 eventually grew comfortable discussing topics of a sexual nature with Jasmin.”

“Jasmin” later introduced V1 to “Mike”.

V1 and “Mike” also started talking about sexual topics soon after. Through Mike’s account, Tay offered to buy V1 a sex toy, and she agreed to accept it.

Tay then bought the item, which he left on a bench near her home so that she could pick it up.

Posing as Mike and Jasmin, Tay also sent to V1 pictures and videos of people engaging in sexual acts.

V1 later recorded a video of herself performing a sexual act and sent it to “Jasmin”.

Tay befriended his other victims in a similar manner before sharing obscene material with them.

On Feb 5, 2019, V1 made a police report, stating that she had exchanged videos of a sexual nature with one Jasmin.

Officers managed to ascertain Tay’s identity, and he went to Jurong Police Division five months later to record a statement.

They later seized from him two laptop computers and a mobile phone.

Forensic examinations of the devices revealed the existence of more victims, said the DPP.

Tay’s mitigation and sentencing are expected to take place in late October.

For each count of distributing obscene material by electronic means, an offender can be jailed for up to three months and fined.