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TikToker accused of raping woman he met on Tinder
The Straits Times
|May 17, 2023
Ex-scriptwriter-actor allegedly assaulted her in his condo after they had dinner at restaurant
A TikToker and former scriptwriter-actor with local YouTube comedy channel Wah! Banana has been accused of raping a woman he met on dating app Tinder.
The assault allegedly happened in his bedroom after he had taken her to his home to work on her script.
On Tuesday, Lev Panfilov, 27, a Singapore permanent resident originally from Russia, went on trial for two counts of rape, one count of sexual assault by penetration and one count of molestation.
He is accused of committing the offences on the night of Jan 12, 2021, in the three-bedroom River Valley condominium unit he shared with roommates.
Panfilov is contesting the charges in a High Court trial. He is defended by lawyers Anil Balchandani and Ashwin Ganapathy.
The woman, then 30 years old, cannot be named owing to a gag order.
Panfilov has more than 27,000 followers on TikTok, where he posts comedic videos about life in Singapore, often speaking in Singlish.
This story is from the May 17, 2023 edition of The Straits Times.
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