A domestic helper from the Philippines pleaded guilty to a charge of criminal intimidation on Monday (July 18) and received an eight-week jail sentence for attempting to blackmail a part-time former employer.
Another charge of distributing an intimate image was taken into consideration in sentencing Melissa Bariga Cuizon, 40.
A gag order has been imposed on the man’s identity for his protection.
Cuizon began working as a part-time housekeeper for a Singaporean man on Jan 6 of this year. The man, who was married, contacted her after finding her on Facebook.
However, the pair started an affair after she went to work for him, to the point of sending each other explicit photographs.
On Feb 5, Cuizon asked if she could borrow S$3,500 from the man, telling him she had acted as a guarantor for a loan and that the money was needed to pay back a loan shark.
This was a lie, as she actually needed the money to pay back a friend.
But the man refused her request.
She then threatened to send pictures of his genitals to his wife and to tell her about their illicit relationship.
He still said no.
Cuizon then sent the photos to one “Adrian Wong,” a man she was having a relationship online with, according to Yahoo! News Singapore.
Wong also used the pictures to threaten the man Cuizon had had an affair with.
Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Timotheus Koh said that because the helper had shared the intimate photos with Wong, this meant a “real risk of the complainant’s photographs being distributed to a wide audience, causing the complainant shame and distress.”
The DPP asked for a jail sentence for Cuizon of eight to 10 weeks.
“The fact that ‘Adrian Wong’ used the photographs to threaten the complainant as well is evidence of this real risk, Yahoo! quotes the DPP as saying.
Anyone convicted of criminal intimidation faces a jail term of up to two years, a fine, or both. As for the distribution of intimate images or recordings, the maximum penalty is a jail term of five years and/or a fine and caning. /TISG
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