'Devious' and 'perverse' convict recruited young girls for sex

Muhammad Khairulanwar Rohmat, a 25-year-old, was the first case to be prosecuted under the recently enacted Prevention of Human Trafficking Act (POHTA). He was sentenced to six years and three months imprisonment for sexually exploiting at least two teenage girls and forcing them into prostitution. In addition to his jail term, he has was also fined S$30,000 today (Feb 19).
The 25-year-old, pleaded guilty to three counts under the POHTA for recruiting two underage girls for the purpose of exploitation. He also received $50 in commission from one of the trafficked victims.
Khairulanwar, who is a Singapore Institute of Management student also admitted to one count of sexual penetration of a minor. He faced 14 similar charges involving six other victims and the judge took this into consideration in sentencing him.
District Judge Mathew Joseph, pointed out how Khairulanwar preyed on “lost children” in need of money and looking for legitimate jobs.
First Victim – 15-year-old waitress
The Court heard how in April 2015, when the first victim, a 15-year-old waitress, posted on her Facebook that she was looking for work Khairulanwar responded and offered her a modeling job. She however had to agree to his requirement of providing “extra duties” which including having sex with customers.
Khairulanwar persuaded the reluctant victim saying that providing sexual services to customers was part of “modelling and photoshoot jobs”. Coaxing her that customers would no longer want to engage her if she was older, he told her that 16 was “a good age” to start prostituting.
Then on the pretext of needing to “assess her body without clothes on”, Khairulanwar brought the waitress to a nearby public toilet, took nude photos of her and sexually assaulted her.
The girl was further instructed to send sexually explicit pictures of herself to the convict, but she stopped sending him such photos when he suggested they meet at a hotel so he could “train her in different poses and positions”.
Second Victim – A 16-year-old
Khairulanwar lured the second victim, a 16-year-old through an advertisement in the website Gumtree. He used a moniker “Mrdotdotdot”, to ask the girl to meet a customer “Khai” that evening.
“Mrdotdotdot” and “Khai” were the same person, but Khairulanwar used the different personas, both to intimidate the girl and to act as an empathetic confidante, tricking “her into succumbing to his own lustful desires,” Judge Mathew said.
Trusting “Khai” the girl succumbed to have sex with him in a Geylang hotel. “Khai” further filmed their sexual encounter with a GoPro camera, and also arranged other customers for her.
The 16-year-old performed oral sex on a man in early April, for which she received $350, and in the second week of April, the girl was paid $450 for engaging in sex with another customer.
Making use of his 2 different personas, Khairulanwar kept the girl pliant by threatening to post nude photos of her online if she refused to comply.
Judge – Double exploitation of vulnerable children
The judge chided Khairulanwar for “double exploitation of vulnerable children”, for sexually assaulting the girls before introducing them to customers.
Describing him as a “devious” and “perverse” person, the judge further said that it was a “cunning and calculated tactic … to exploit the gullibility and immaturity” of the girls.
“Human trafficking is a modern form of slavery … which involves controlling a person through force, fraud or coercion to exploit the victim,” the judge added.