Singapore — A man who graduated from the National University Singapore (NUS) this year admitted to not only stalking a woman for around a year but also reading her messages on Telegram.
Twenty-five-year-old Ong Jing Xiang entered a guilty plea to one count of harassment and another count under the Computer Misuse Act since he had gone into her dorm room illegally and taken the woman’s verification code on her phone in order to gain access to her Telegram messages.
Another charge of criminal trespass will be considered when he returns to court for sentencing on Nov 11.
NUS said in April that Ong was placed under disciplinary action in 2020 after the university learned about the case against him.
“NUS takes a serious view of misconduct by members of our community. Any student who breaches the NUS statutes and regulations will face severe sanctions.
The university places the highest priority on the safety and well-being of our students. No-contact orders have been served to prohibit interaction between both parties,” said a spokesman for the university.
Ong first met the woman, who has not been named to protect her identity, in 2017.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Tay Zhi Jie told the court that while Ong developed an interest in her, she did not reciprocate his feelings and turned him down.
But by August 2019, Ong began to keep track of her status on a messaging application and texted her repeatedly about her boyfriend, to the point of sending her over one hundred messages as well as sixty missed calls by the end of that year.
His pestering soon escalated to in-person encounters, when he would knock on her dorm room door on campus.
Even as she asked him to stop messaging her, Ong said that he would find her, even referencing her whereabouts and her clothing.
After he got access to her Telegram account, he added his own number to it.
He told her he read the messages on her chat groups.
Around March 2020, the woman complained about Ong to the NUS, and instead of desisting, he increased the number of messages he sent her, sometimes reaching 30 messages in a day when she would not answer him back.
“If u think this can be resolved by ignoring or not talking that’s not happening. Lemme repeat, this will go on forever,” Ong told the woman, who filed a police report on July 25, 2020.
On Aug 1, NUS issued a No-Contact Order on Ong.
His victim told the court that she has had lasting effects from Ong’s stalking, including fear and paranoia. /TISG