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Jail for man who paid 16-year-old 'sugar baby' for sex
The girl made a police report after hearing that the man, who was initially afraid to pay her for sex as she was underaged, became comfortable with meeting other underaged girls, the prosecutor said.
Singapore's State Courts. (File photo: CNA/Wallace Woon)
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Davina Tham
10 Feb 2025 12:40PMBookmark
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FAST
SINGAPORE: A man was sentenced to one-and-a-half years' jail on Monday (Feb 10) for paying a 16-year-old "sugar baby" for sex.
After a trial, Mario Antonio Di Dier, a 42-year-old Singaporean, was earlier convicted on five counts of paying the victim for sex between Dec 2, 2021 and Apr 13, 2022.
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The legal age of consent for sex in Singapore is 16, but it is an offence to have commercial sex with a minor under the age of 18.
Di Dier and the girl met in November 2021 via the Sugarbook website, a dating platform connecting "sugar daddies" and "sugar babies".
According to the website, the minimum age required to use Sugarbook is 18.
The victim testified that she was paid S$300 (US$223) for performing a sexual act on Di Dier during their first meeting on Dec 2, 2021. She was paid S$300 for sexual acts on four subsequent occasions.
The police were alerted to the case by the victim, who lodged a report in August 2022 saying that she had consensual sex with Di Dier and he paid her afterwards.
The victim testified that she made the police report as after April 2022, she learnt that a friend of the same age had also met Di Dier and that he had given her money.
"While (Di Dier) had initially expressed that he was afraid to meet her and have paid sex with her because she was underaged, he was now okay with meeting another 17-year-old from Sugarbook. She felt guilty about this," the prosecutor said.
The victim told her psychiatrist about this.
"Her psychiatrist was the one who encouraged her to make a police report on the basis that (Di Dier) would definitely be okay with meeting other girls who are under 18 and that she should put a stop to it by making a police report," added the prosecutor.
At a previous hearing, the judge said that the onus was on the older person to "do right" and not take advantage of the victim for sexual gratification, even if the victim offered sexual services.
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In this case, Di Dier had seen marks on the girl's body that indicated self-harm, and therefore, even more so should not have taken advantage of her vulnerability, the judge said.
For each charge of having commercial sex with a minor under 18, Di Dier could have been jailed for up to seven years, fined or both.
