Teacher made pupil, 9, expose his underwear to him
Former teacher jailed a year for sexually exploiting boy
He was a primary school form teacher with a sick fascination for boys' underwear.
Colin Ting Fook Mun made a nine-year-old pupil unzip his pants so he could see the boy's underwear.
He also made the boy look at his underwear on seven occasions between March 2014 and January last year.
The offences came to light after the boy confided in his aunt last April.
Yesterday, Ting, 41, was jailed a year for three charges, under the Children and Young Persons Act, of committing an indecent act with a child. Another five charges were taken into consideration for sentencing.
Court papers said that Ting was the boy's form teacher at a primary school in the western part of Singapore.
In March 2014, Ting made the boy unzip his (Ting's) pants, and he exposed his underwear to the boy.
In September 2014, he got the boy, who cannot be named due to a gag order, to help him carry some class materials to the staff room.
They later stopped outside a male toilet where Ting handed the boy a plastic bag containing three pairs of underwear and told him to try on the black one.
He insisted even after the boy said he was already wearing boxers. The boy obeyed him.
When the boy came out, Ting unzipped the boy's shorts and stared at his underwear for a while.
He zipped up the boy's shorts and told him to return to class.
Last January, Ting wore a new pair of underwear to school on six occasions and had the boy stay back in the classroom.
When they were alone, he made the boy unzip his pants, and he exposed his underwear to the boy.
Ting told the boy to keep mum about the incidents, and the victim obeyed out of fear.
But last April, the boy told his aunt what had happened to him after she said jokingly that he should be careful of perverted teachers in school.
The boy replied: "Only one, not a lot."
Yesterday, Deputy Public Prosecutor James Chew said the boy said in his victim impact statement that he now lives in fear of teachers unzipping his pants.
DISTURBING
DPP Chew pointed out that the offences happened in school, where pupils are supposed to be safe.
Defence counsel Philip Lam said in mitigation that his client was suffering from Avoidant Personality Disorder.
The case highly disturbed District Judge Matthew Joseph, who told Ting: "Your acts have brought a stain on the profession as a teacher. This is highly regrettable."
He added that it was painful reading the victim impact statement and he called the case gravely disturbing.
He also said Ting's misdeeds were not one-off or based on an error of judgment - there were eight occasions where the teacher sexually exploited the boy.
The judge, however, noted that Ting had resigned on his own accord shortly after he was taken into police custody. He commended Ting for his willingness to take responsibility for his actions.
Ting could have been jailed up to five years and fined up to $10,000 for each charge.
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