Goh Jun Guan was a mentor to a group of boys who would ask him for tips to improve their skills in a card trading game.

However, Goh, 27, has an evil motive for doing so – in return for guiding the boys in the game of Vanguard, he would perform oral sex on them or touch their genitalia.

The former administrative assistant pleaded guilty on Friday (18 November) to five charges of sexual penetration of a minor, two charges of committing an obscene act with a child and two charges of procuring a child to commit an obscene act.

Twenty-one other charges related to sexual assault were taken into consideration. For his crimes, Goh was sentenced to 12 years and six months’ jail, and given 15 strokes of the cane.

Offences happened between 2012 and 2014

Appearing before Justice Woo Bih Li, Goh appeared calm and was smiling as the nine charges were read to him in English.

Reading from the statement of facts, Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Sruthi Boppana said that between 2012 and 2014, Goh committed the offences against “not less than 10 boys” aged between 10 and 15.

The names of the boys were not revealed due to a gag order.

Introducing himself as “Terry”, Goh would meet his victims at a game shop and play Vanguard with them, DPP Boppana said.

As his victims considered him as a good Vanguard player, they would ask him for tips to improve their skills, the DPP added.

Training came with a price

During his interactions with the victims, Goh told them that he would train them in the game in exchange for him being allowed to either touch their genitalia or perform fellatio on them, the court heard.

On one occasion, Goh brought a 10-year-old boy to his flat where he fondled and performed oral sex on the victim, DPP Boppana said. On another occasion, Goh coerced a 13-year-old boy to go into a handicapped toilet in a mall where he then performed fellatio on his victim.

Pressing for a sentence of not more than 11 years, Goh’s counsel, Richard Lim, said that his client was molested by a family member when he was younger, and was often bullied when he was in primary school.

When he was 10, Goh was tasked to be the buddy of a primary one student, Lim said. It was then that Goh realised that he got along better with younger kids and wanted to “protect” them and felt “safer” with them.

Dismissing the defence’s arguments, Justice Woo told Goh in sentencing, “I cannot accept that you feel happier and safer with younger children and that you want to protect them.

“If you have wanted to do so, you won’t have done what you did.”