Man in Singapore jailed and caned for possessing hundreds of child sex abuse videos for distribution

SINGAPORE: A 31-year-old man was sentenced on Monday (14 July) to three years and one month in jail and four strokes of the cane for possessing hundreds of child sexual abuse videos for the purpose of distribution. Danial Abdul Rahman pleaded guilty to one charge of possessing 285 such videos with the intention to share them. A second charge was taken into consideration during sentencing. Most of the videos featured children engaged in or appearing to engage in sexual activity, with seven videos depicting victims of torture, cruelty, or physical abuse. In total, the videos involved 414 children—383 of whom were identifiable. One of the clips was more than an hour and 50 minutes long.

Years of Collecting and Sharing Abusive Material

The court heard that Danial, who was training to be a digital marketer at the time of the offences, began browsing blogging platform Tumblr in 2017 in search of obscene content involving males. He downloaded and stored the material in a Google Drive account. He later accessed the dark web to seek child sexual abuse content and joined multiple Telegram channels where such materials were shared. Danial would store these files on his Google Drive. In 2018, he created a Twitter account—now known as X—to post and retweet obscene content, gaining between 200 and 500 followers. Some users messaged him privately, asking for help to download child sexual abuse materials. Danial agreed, locating the content on the dark web and sending it via direct messages or by sharing Google Drive links. Even after his Twitter account was suspended in May 2021, he continued receiving and fulfilling similar requests via Telegram. He distributed such content to multiple users, including at least five on Twitter, over a period of four years from 2018 to March 2022. On 12 May 2022, police raided Danial’s home after receiving a tip-off about his activities. He admitted to uploading obscene materials to his Google Drive account and was arrested. Officers seized his devices and found 285 videos containing child sexual abuse material. According to court documents, some videos involved infants less than a year old and included acts described as degrading.

Prosecution Calls for Stern Punishment

The prosecution called Danial’s actions “reprehensible in the highest degree” and sought a sentence of 37 to 39 months’ imprisonment and six strokes of the cane. Deputy Public Prosecutor Benjamin Low said that by willingly responding to the depraved requests of third-party internet users for child sexual abuse material, Danial actively and persistently contributed to the market for such content. He described Danial as having functioned as a one-man distribution hub, fuelling the predatory demands of others through his repeated actions. Under Singapore law, anyone convicted of possessing child sexual abuse material for distribution faces up to seven years in jail, a fine, and caning.