Jail sentence and caning for man who had 304 sexually explicit videos of children in his possession

SINGAPORE – A married man who went online and specifically searched for sexually explicit material involving children was later found with 304 videos containing such content.

On November 4, Mohamad Fadli Kamaral Jaman, 36, was sentenced to two years and one month in prison and four strokes of the cane after pleading guilty to one count of possessing child abuse material.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Benjamin Low told the court that Fadli was browsing pornographic websites in 2022 when he came across a video of a child engaging in sexual activity with an adult.

Soon after, he used a file-sharing program to search through “pre-teen” material and downloaded it to a hard drive so he could watch it himself.

Without revealing details, the prosecutor said that police officers from the Criminal Investigation Department’s Specialized Crime Branch later received information about Fadli’s offense and raided his home on February 20, 2023.

DPP Low added: “The suspect was then contacted by his wife… who told him that there were police officers at their home and urged the suspect to return home.”

He reached home and was arrested after admitting to officers that he had downloaded sexually explicit material featuring children.

It was later revealed that his computer and hard drive contained 304 videos showing such content.

Interior Minister Sun Xueling said in September that this has been the case since 2020 approximately 140 police investigations into cases involving child sexual abuse material.

Possession of such material came into effect in January 2020. Offenders face a mandatory prison sentence of up to five years, and may also be fined or caned.

According to figures provided by the Singapore judiciary, the number of cases has increased since 2020. There was one case that year, but none in 2021.

It rose to five cases in 2022 and then to seven in 2023.