Singapore’s State Courts. (Yahoo file photo)
He followed a 62-year-old woman at a neighbourhood in Punggol and flashed his private parts at her twice while he was serving a court order for circulating his ex-girlfriend’s topless photos online.
The woman was aware she was being followed and hurriedly approached a maid who was pushing an elderly person in a wheelchair for help. But Muhammad Ariffin Abdul Majid, 24, was undeterred and flashed and fondled himself in their presence.
Ariffin admitted on Friday (25 August) to one count of doing an obscene act in public and another count of uploading two topless photographs of his girlfriend onto an online platform. He was sentenced to three weeks’ jail on both charges with the sentences to run concurrently.
The woman, who was returning home from her morning exercise, was at the lift lobby waiting for the lift at her block around 10am when Ariffin walked past the lobby. When the lift arrived, Ariffin turned back and entered the lift. He held the doors open for the woman but she felt uncomfortable and did not enter the lift.
When Ariffin left the lift, the woman headed toward the void deck of the block while Ariffin tailed her. The woman approached a maid who was pushing her elderly charge in a wheelchair before she called her husband unsuccessfully on her mobile phone twice.
It was around 10.14am when Ariffin, who was standing behind a wall near the woman, the maid and the elderly individual, exposed his private parts and began touching himself.
The three headed to another block in Punggol Drive while Ariffin followed behind. In an attempt to shake Ariffin off, the trio went to a public park which was filled with children and other adults. When Ariffin tried to approach them at the park, the trio left the park for another HDB block with Ariffin persisting in following behind them.
When the woman turned around, she saw that Ariffin had exposed himself again. The trio quickened their pace and finally managed to shake off Ariffin. The woman lodged a police report later that day.
Ariffin committed the offences after he was given a conditional warning for circulating topless photos, which a former girlfriend had sent to him previously. A conditional warning is given to offenders on the condition that they do not commit a fresh offence within a period of time. Should they flout the condition, they could be prosecuted for the fresh and original offences.
The victim is a 23-year-old woman who dated Ariffin for eight years before their relationship ended in May last year. The woman only found out about the photos five months after the breakup.
On 1 October 2016, the woman received a hyperlink to the photos from an anonymous source through the photo-sharing application Instagram. When she clicked on the link, she saw two topless photographs of herself. She lodged a police report the next day.
The woman had sent Ariffin the photos while they were still dating. But feeling angry after an argument with the woman, Ariffin uploaded the topless photos onto blogging platform Tumblr some time in 2015.
He removed the photos from his Tumblr account later, but another user had saved them and re-uploaded them onto the website. When the woman told Ariffin that her photos were being circulated online, Ariffin requested that the Tumblr administrator remove them.
It was later revealed during a forensic examination of Ariffin’s mobile phone that he had uploaded at least six explicit photographs of his former girlfriend onto Tumblr.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Esther Tang, who sought at least three weeks per charge, said that the victim had only found her photos circulating online almost a year after they were uploaded.
She added that for his most recent offence, Ariffin had trailed the woman for a while and exposed himself to them repeatedly, causing fear to the woman.
In mitigation, Ariffin said he was remorseful and asked for a lighter sentence as he was the sole breadwinner caring for his mother and grandmother.
District Judge Lorraine Ho pointed out that Ariffin uploaded the explicit photos of his girlfriend out of revenge and spite. As to the flashing offence, she said, “You were clearly seeking to annoy and provoke the female victims by exposing yourself not only once, but twice and instil fear by following them.”
For both doing an obscene act in a public place and transmitting an obscene image, Ariffin could have been jailed up to three months and/or fined on each charge.
