Man who downloaded child abuse pornography nearly daily over 5 years jailed for 32 months

SINGAPORE - A father of two who downloaded child abuse pornography nearly daily over five years was jailed for 32 months on Thursday (March 3).

Wong Ket Kok, 54, was caught with at least 46,946 electronic files containing child sexual abuse material and more than twice that amount of adult porn, in what the prosecution called "one of the most egregious cases relating to the possession of child abuse material".

"While the accused did not directly inflict the abuse on these children, he fuelled the production of such material with his incessant demand for it," said Deputy Public Prosecutor Louis Ngia.

The court heard that the police were tipped off that Wong had downloaded multiple child abuse materials from the Internet, and raided his flat on July 29, 2020, at around 9.15pm.

Wong, a self-employed renovation contractor, admitted that more than five years prior, he began searching for and downloading child abuse material every day using a file sharing software called eMule, for his own sexual gratification.

His daughter would have then been 12, and his son, six, at the most, DPP Ngia told the court.

Investigations revealed that Wong's hard disks and Dell laptop contained about 164,666 videos and images depicting either adult pornography or child abuse material.

Of these, at least 46,946 electronic files were found to be child sexual abuse material.

"They were videos and images that depict children engaging in sexual activities or sexual poses," said DPP Ngia, who added that some videos depicted young girls in bondage being sexually assaulted.

In urging the court for a sentence of between two-and-a-half years and three years, DPP Ngia said: "(The accused) built a library for his own sexual gratification... (His offence) was not a moment of folly but consistent conduct, and a depraved one at that."

ALSO READ: Infant care teacher hit 1-year-old boy more than 20 times and covered his head with pillow, then tried to hide her tracks

Wong told the court in mitigation that he financially supports his son and daughter who are now studying in secondary school and polytechnic.

District Judge John Ng agreed with the prosecution and said that general deterrence is paramount because of the nature of these offences.

Wong will begin serving his sentence on March 10.

For possessing child abuse material, offenders can be sentenced to up to five years' jail, a fine, and caning. Wong cannot be caned as he is over 50.

This article was first published in The Straits Times. Permission required for reproduction.