A Hong Kong gigolo has been jailed in Singapore after attempting to blackmail a woman he’d been servicing with the threat of releasing embarrassing photos.
Calvin Mok, who calls himself a “freelance masseur”, according to Asia One, was jailed for 13 weeks on Friday after pleading guilty to an offence under the Protection from Harassment Act.
The court heard how a 67-year-old woman from Singapore first solicited Mok’s services during a holiday to Hong Kong in 2013, and continued to hire the 41-year-old on trips over the next two years.
However, when she tried to break off the engagement in July, Mok threatened to disseminate humiliating photos and video clips he had taken of the woman without her knowledge.
The gigolo (sorry, masseur) sent her nude photos on WhatsApp as well as voice messages saying he would send the footage to a man she knew and ruin her career if she didn’t pay him HKD100,000.
We dare say at 67 she should have been about ready to retire from said career anyway, but hey ho.
The woman – clearly still as sharp as whip, however – haggled Mok down to HKD60,000 and then had the police arrest him at Singapore Airport when he came to collect the money on Sept. 3.
District Judge Soh Tze Bian naturally blamed the whole affair on WhatsApp, saying the mobile phone app will perpetuate this sort of crime in the future.
“Elderly and young persons of the fairer sex are made particularly vulnerable by this exposure, as they are most likely to be preyed upon and solicited for sex and/or held to ransom,” he claimed.
Judge Soh could, of course, have helped deter such activities by handing Mok the maximum penalty of a HKD5,000 fine and a prison term of six months… but then, it’s pretty clear WhatsApp is the real culprit here.
Photo: Álvaro Ibáñez
