Singapore badminton coach, who sexually groomed 15-year-old girl, jailed for 3 years

The badminton coach of a secondary school team sent several female students sexual messages and later engaged in sexual acts with one of them when she was 15 years old.

The married man, now aged 33, was sentenced to three years’ jail on Thursday after he pleaded guilty to two charges of engaging in sexual acts with a person under 16 years of age.

Both the man and the teenager cannot be named under a court gag order to protect the victim’s identity.

The court heard that the man had been hired by the secondary school as a badminton team coach in 2017 but was later dismissed in June 2019 after reports about his behaviour began to emerge.

The school principal and head of department of co-curricular activities and physical education were notified that the coach had sent inappropriate Instagram private messages to students, including girls not in the badminton team.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Santhra Aiyyasamy told the court that the student had got to know the coach when she joined the team in secondary one.

Sometime between March and April 2017, the two started following each other on Instagram, where they began private messaging and chatting about daily events.

This progressed into the coach sending the teenager home after their school badminton training sessions and occasionally bringing her out for meals. He had also conducted free private badminton coaching sessions.

In 2018, when the student was about 14 years old, the coach started to hold her hands in public and also hugged and kissed her when they were alone in his car.

The coach’s attention made the student feel special, even though he had told her that they could be in only an “unofficial” relationship as he was married, said Santhra.

Sometime after the girl turned 15, the