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Wong Jing Ching was a taekwon-do champion who won the gold medal for Singapore at the 1993 Southeast Asian Games. But his life crumbled when he was caught for pimping in June last year, bringing in women from Uzbekistan to Singapore.
On Feb 25, the 40-year-old was fined $29,000 for introducing clients to the prostitutes and bribing two security personnel of a hotel where he housed the women to keep mum about his vice activities. His Uzbekistani wife Shirinbekova Yealan, 23, was fined $8,000 for helping him.
According to The New Paper report today (Mar 21), Wong once lived and breathed taekwon-do, training seven days a week and more than 12 hours a day. He was so proud of his gold medal at the1993 SEA Games that he added the alias ‘Champion’ in his identity card, naming himself Patrick Champion Wong.
However, his life started to go downhill when he fractured his shin during the 1995 SEA Games and had to undergo surgery to have a metal plate inserted into his shin.
Since then, he had worked as a flight steward and ventured into business. He also worked as a bodyguard in 2007.
That was when he met his Uzbekistani wife during a trip to Malaysia. They got married in 2009 in Singapore and now have a 19-month-old daughter.
After his conviction this year, Wong’s friends began to avoid him. He told The New Paper:
"People are…saying that I am a disgrace to Singapore.
"Do they know how much I have sacrificed and suffered for taekwon-do?
"I don’t deny that I have made a big mistake in my life. The law has given me a chance, God has given me a chance. Now, why can’t Singaporeans give me a chance?"
He and his wife could have been jailed up to five years and fined up to $10,000 for living off immoral earnings. For acting as a contact point for prostitutes, they could have been fined up to $3,000, jailed up to three years or both.
The maximum penalty for corruption is a $100,000 fine and five years’ jail on each charge.
