A man was sentenced to eight years and nine months in jail and six strokes of the cane for raping a 13-year-old girl he met online.On June 9, Kevin Tan Jia Hut, 28, pleaded guilty to one charge of rape. Three other similar charges were taken into consideration during sentencing.Tan was 25 when he committed the offence.Deputy public prosecutors Nicholas Wuan and Mavis Ng said Tan and the victim got to know each other in May 2023 via an online video-conferencing platform that anonymously pairs users for one-on-one video or text conversations.The conversations between Tan and the victim soon took on a sexual nature, and they began talking on Telegram, where they spoke about meeting up to have sex.In June 2023, the pair met at night at the staircase of an HDB block near the victim’s home, where she performed a sexual act on him.The victim left soon after, telling Tan that she had to go because she had sneaked out of her house.The next month, Tan was texting the victim on Telegram when she told him she wanted to have sex.As Tan’s mother and sister were overseas at the time, Tan booked a taxi to take the victim to his home. Read more