PETALING JAYA: A US court has sentenced Singaporean blogger Amos Yee to six years’ jail after he pleaded guilty to two charges of child pornography and grooming.
The Chicago court also ordered Yee, 23, yesterday not to contact the 14-year-old victim for two years after his release from jail.
The 16 other child pornography-related charges Yee faced were dismissed as part of a plea deal he accepted, Singapore’s The Straits Times reported.
According to the first child pornography charge, Yee solicited, persuaded and induced the victim to pose salaciously on video and other mediums between February and July 2019.
Under Illinois criminal law, the charge is a class one felony and considered the second-most serious type of offence, carrying a prison sentence of four to 15 years.
According to the second charge of grooming, Yee used WhatsApp to seduce, solicit and lure the victim to pose for photographs. This charge has a minimum jail term of one year and a maximum of three years.
The Straits Times quoted judge Carol Howard as saying that by pleading guilty, Yee may be deported, denied admission to the US or denied naturalisation as a US citizen in the future.
Yee was living in Cook County, Chicago, at the time of his offences and began an “online courtship” in February 2019, the report said.
To appeal his charges, he must file a motion within 30 days to withdraw his guilty plea.
Previously, he had been jailed twice in Singapore for harassment and insulting a religious group in 2015 and 2016.
He was granted asylum in the US in 2017. - FMT
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