Man jailed after victim reports indecent acts on him as a boy two decades later

In 2005, when he was nine, a boy was often touched inappropriately by a neighbour who enticed him with an electronic game console.

- Nadine Chua

The man even took a naked picture of the boy on a Polaroid camera.

Despite having nightmares about the man touching his private parts, the boy did not report the incidents to anyone as he was ashamed and felt no one would believe him.

The victim also knew that his father had borrowed money from the offender and did not want to make things awkward between them.

Eventually, the boy moved away, and he lost contact with the neighbour, who had committed the acts at the vegetable stall he operated.

Almost 20 years later in 2024, the victim saw his former neighbour and decided to make a police report about the inappropriate acts committed against him.

On Sept 2, 2025, the offender, now 72, was sentenced to two years' jail after pleading guilty to committing indecent acts on the boy.

To protect the victim's identity, there is a gag order on the names of the offender and the victim, where the offender lived at the time of the incidents, and where the offender's stall is still located.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Jonathan Tan said the victim would hang around the market where the offender ran a vegetable stall with his wife.

The victim would call the offender "uncle" and play with the offender's son, who was around his age.

DPP Tan said the victim's father and grandmother also knew the offender, who was around 51 at the time.