Ex-primary school teacher jailed for having more than 7,700 obscene videos, including child porn

[The_King]

SINGAPORE: When a primary school teacher saw an online comment offering to share pornography with anyone willing to connect on the mobile application Kik, he downloaded the Canadian app.

Loh Wei Qi later received multiple obscene video files, including child pornography.

Canadian authorities later shared information with the Singapore Police Force about an IP address in Singapore that was linked to the transmission of child abuse material through Kik. 

The address was traced to the Singaporean teacher, who resigned about two years after his arrest.

Loh, 36, was sentenced to two weeks' jail on Friday (Dec 9) for one count of possessing 7,786 obscene films. These included more than 100 videos of child pornography.

The court heard that Loh was a teacher at Park View Primary School, and began consuming pornography in 2011 or 2012.

In 2016, Loh chanced upon an anonymous user comment on blogging site Tumblr, saying they would share pornography with anyone who added them on Kik.

Loh registered for a Kik account and added the anonymous user. He began using the application to share and receive files and videos with pornographic content.

Although he did not deliberately look for child porn, he received and sent out such material.

In December 2018, Loh realised his account had been suspended and he was unable to log in.

He deleted the application but kept the files he had downloaded. He continued perusing and downloading porn from other sources.

In April 2019, the Singapore Police Force received information from Interpol Ottawa that an IP address in Singapore was linked to the transmission of child abuse material through Kik.

The police raided Loh's Tampines flat and seized his electronic and storage devices. The devices were found to contain 7,786 obscene files. Of this, 131 included child pornography.

Loh resigned from his teaching job in July 2021.

Defence lawyer Kalidass Murugaiyan tried to ask for a community-based sentence.

He said his client had been "done quite well" in public service from 2008, and had been "an exemplary model for his peers".

He said his client's parents suffered from mental conditions and that Loh was hit "time and again with multiple stressors".

The teacher suffers from major depressive disorder, said the lawyer.

A TEACHER THROUGHOUT THE OFFENCES: PROSECUTOR

Deputy Public Prosecutor Yvonne Poon said Loh was a teacher throughout the time of the offences, even when police investigations started.

In terms of his consumption of adult porn, he told an Institute of Mental Health psychiatrist that he began to "increasingly" view porn involving teenage females around 2017.

"In other words, throughout the bulk of the time he was a teacher working with young children, the accused had been actively ... consuming child porn and increasingly viewing porn with young teenage female subjects," she said.

In response, the defence said his client had done "nothing wrong in his course of work".

None of the videos he watched involved his students, said the lawyer.

"Yes it's a moral question, but it should not be a sentencing factor per se," he said.

For the offence of possessing obscene films, Loh could have been jailed for up to 12 months, fined up to S$40,000 or both.

Loh is no longer teaching in any school after he resigned in July 2021, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Education (MOE) said in response to CNA's queries. 

"MOE takes a serious view of staff misconduct and will take disciplinary action against those who fail to adhere to our standards of conduct and discipline, including dismissal from service," the spokesperson added.

Source: CNA/ll(jo)

[ManOfTheHour]

Guessed correctly

sick bastard

[XianGe]

He must be single