Serial rapist with foot fetish gets another jail sentence in Singapore after drawing smiley faces on woman’s toes

SINGAPORE, Aug 15 — Tan Boon Hwee lied that he was a volunteer at a student shelter and that he had to complete a game to get his slippers back. He convinced a woman to let him draw smiley faces on her toes.

After drawing her toes, he touched her feet so he could adjust their position for taking the photo.

Tan, 35, was sentenced today to eight months in prison for indecent assault.

He was also given a further 36 days in prison for committing the offence while still in possession of a pardon order, which is usually issued to prisoners of good behaviour who may be released after serving two-thirds of their sentence.

Tan, who has a sexual interest in feet, was previously convicted of similar offences in 2019.

He has chronic adjustment disorder with depressive mood and paraphilic disorder (related to atypical sexual interests), but the latest assessment by the Institute of Mental Health, dated May 3 this year, concluded that these disorders did not contribute to his offending.

The name of the victim, 35 years old, cannot be released by order of the court.

What happened

According to Assistant Public Prosecutor Lydia Goh, on April 18 this year, Tan wanted to harass people by touching their feet. He brought a black marker with him for this purpose.

At around 1:00 p.m., the victim walked to a playground in Ang Mo Kio after eating her lunch. While there, Tan approached her and introduced herself as a volunteer at a student shelter.

To convince the woman to take off her shoes, he lied that he had lost a challenge during a game and that his slippers had been taken from him. To get them back, he had to draw smiley faces on the feet of five different people and take a picture of their feet.

The woman thought he meant it and agreed, but she took Tan’s pen and drew the smileys on her own feet.

After she did that and gave the marker back to him, he asked if he could draw on her toes. She thought it was part of the challenge and let him draw on each of her toes.

Tan then adjusted her feet to take a photo with his mobile phone. He showed these photos to the woman, before asking if they could be friends. The woman declined his request.

When she got home, the woman searched the internet and saw that Tan had been in the news in recent years.

Because she was afraid that he had taken a photo of her thighs because she was wearing shorts on the playground, she decided to report it to the police.

Repeat offender

APP Goh requested a prison sentence of nine to ten months with an additional 36 days for recidivism during remission.

“He clearly did not learn his lesson. He continued this deception (to touch women’s feet), which is similar in his cases from 2019 to 2023,” she said, referring to his previous convictions.

In April 2022, TODAY reported that Tan was sentenced to two weeks and five days in jail after being found guilty of two counts of indecent exposure.

In one of these offences, he claimed to be a member of a non-existent charity called the “Barefoot Walking Society” when he harassed a woman by fondling the soles of her feet. They had met on the dating app Tinder.

In 2019, he was fined S$8,000 for five counts of sexual assault.

Tan, who was represented by Mohamed Sarhan of the Public Prosecution Service, argued that a lighter sentence of six to seven months in prison would be sufficient.

Sarhan requested an additional 13 days in jail for Tan’s recidivism while he was on a release order.

“The level of sexual exploitation is low because feet are not intimate parts… and skin-to-skin contact was low,” Sarhan added.

In his brief sentencing speech, District Judge Lim Tse Haw said there was a need for “specific deterrence to hopefully deter (Tan) from repeating the crime, and general deterrence to protect the public”.

He also addressed Tan and said he hoped Tan would not appear in court again for similar offences.

“The next time you come back, the punishment will definitely be much longer.”

For sexual assault, a person can be sentenced to up to three years in prison, a fine or flogging, or a combination of these punishments. — TODAY