Public Prosecutor v Lorenzo Sharon Trinidad

• Jurisdiction: Singapore
• Judge: Salina Bte Ishak
• Judgment Date: 03 January 2014
• Neutral Citation: [2014] SGDC 5
• Court: District Court (Singapore)
• Docket Number: DAC 14212 - 2013 & 19 Ors, Magistrate’s Appeal No 319 of 2013/01
• Published date: 15 January 2014
• Year: 2014
• Hearing Date: 13 December 2013
• Plaintiff Counsel: DPP Norman Teo, Attorney-General's Chambers
• Defendant Counsel: Mr Sankar Saminathan on behalf of SK Kumar Law Practice LLP
• Citation: [2014] SGDC 5

District Judge Salina Ishak: The Charges

The Accused, Ms Lorenzo Sharon Trinidad, female aged 31 years old had pleaded guilty to one charge out of the 20 charges against her. Essentially, the charge against her was that sometime in August 2012, in Singapore, she did abet by intentionally aiding one Govindaraju Sivakumar in a conspiracy to procure one Jessabeth Requirme Lastimado female: 27 years old, D.O.B: 21.12.1984, Philippines Passport No: EBXXXX981 for the purpose of prostitution within Singapore and in pursuance of the conspiracy, sometime in August 2012, she met Jessabeth Requirme Lastimado in the Philippines and obtained her agreement to work in Singapore under Section 140(1)(b) Women Charter (Cap 353, 2009 Rev Ed) read with Section 108A and Section 109 of the Penal Code (Cap 224, 2008 Rev Ed) in DAC 14212 – 2013.

The remaining 19 charges, namely: 1 charge of receiving into Singapore one Lampa Noraida Bariga, female 32 years old, at Singapore Changi International Airport, Singapore knowing that she had been procured for the purpose of prostitution within Singapore and with intent to aid such a purpose under Section 140(1)(d) Women Charter (Cap 353, 2009 Rev Ed); 2 charges of together with one Aro Sharon Samson in furtherance of their common intention, receiving into Singapore one Guzman Mary Grace Rodriguez, female 27 years old and Magtoto Archie Morales, female 21 years old at Singapore Changi International Airport, Singapore knowing that they had been procured for the purpose of prostitution within Singapore and with intent to aid such a purpose under Section 140(1)(d) Women Charter (Cap 353, 2009 Rev Ed) read with Section 34 of the Penal Code (Cap 224, 2008 Rev Ed); 2 charges of together with one Govindaraju Sivakumar in furtherance of their common intention, receiving into Singapore one Silva Jesse Re Montiman, female 24 years old and Adalin Denilyn Bigting, female 21 years old at Singapore Changi International Airport, Singapore knowing that they had been procured for the purpose of prostitution within Singapore and with intent to aid such a purpose under Section 140(1)(d) Women Charter (Cap 353, 2009 Rev Ed) read with Section 34 of the Penal Code (Cap 224, 2008 Rev Ed) 7 charges of abetting by intentionally aiding one Govindaraju Sivakumar in a conspiracy to procure 7 women, namely Lampa Noraida Bariga, female 32 years old, Espinosa Chona Taneo, female 22 years old, Evangeline Angulo Calubag, female 21 years old, Ollero Lalyn Manabat, female 27 years old, Aro Sharon Samson, female 32 years old, Rocacorba Cristine Joy Mendoza female 20 years old and Maderazo Rachelle Villanueva female 24 years old for the purpose of prostitution within Singapore and in pursuance of the conspiracy, she met or called the 7 women in the Philippines and obtained their agreement to work in Singapore under Section 140(1)(b) Women Charter (Cap 353, 2009 Rev Ed) read with Section 108A and Section 109 of the Penal Code (Cap 224, 2008 Rev Ed); 7 charges of abetting by intentionally aiding one Govindaraju Sivakumar in a conspiracy to procure 7 women, namely Carin Marjorie Tejor female 19 years, Guzman Mary Grace Rodriguez, female 27 years old, Magtoto Archie Morales, female 21 years old, Branggan Ferlie Ann female 21 years old, Silva Jesse Re Montiman, female 24 years old, Adalin Denilyn Bigting female 21 years old and Quizon Ruth Alanan, female 26 years old, for the purpose of prostitution within Singapore and in pursuance of the conspiracy, she arranged or called the 7 women from Singapore and obtained their agreement to work in Singapore under Section 140(1)(b) Women Charter (Cap 353, 2009 Rev Ed) read with Section 109 of the Penal Code (Cap 224, 2008 Rev Ed); were taken into consideration with her consent for the purpose of sentencing.

As the Statement of Facts (“Exhibit PS1”) that the Accused had admitted to was rather lengthy i.e. 15 pages long, only the essential facts are reproduced below.

Summary of Facts Background

On 14 November 2012, acting on information received CMU A Division conducted decoy operations at “Club Milagro” located at 18 Keong Saik Road, Singapore and arrested a total of 8 female Filipinas and two Singaporean staff Tay Wei Boon (“B3”), male aged 23 years and Zaraq Bin Malik (“B4”) male 30 years from the pub for suspected offence under the Women’s Charter (Cap 353, 2009 Rev Ed). Another female Filipina was arrested at Harbour Ville Hotel Room located at 512 Kampong Bahru Road, Singapore after the decoy officer booked her out for sexual services in the hotel.

Prior to the raid conducted by CMU A Division, the police received a ‘Trafficking in Person’ complaint from the Philippines Embassy on 12 November 2012 that a female Filipina, one Adaline Denilyn Bigting was procured under deception to work as a prostitute in the Givande Pub. She claimed that she was supposed to work in Singapore as a public entertainer to accompany customers to drink and earn commission for the sale of “Ladies drinks”. However, during investigations, she revealed that prior to arriving in Singapore, she already knew that she would be required to work as a prostitute. In her statement, she mentioned that Chong Kien Meng (“B6”), male aged 40 years, the cashier of Givande pub did brief her about the bar fine system operating in the said pub and that the girls were required to provide sexual services to customers when the customers paid the ‘bar fine’ to bring them out. After working for two days, she ran away and reported the matter to the Philippines Embassy.

As such, the Specialised Crime Branch, CID (“SSB”) took over the investigations from A Division. On the same day, in the morning in the course of investigations, it was revealed that the co-accused, Govindaraju Sivakumar (“B1”), male aged 40 years and his wife, the Accused (“B2”) were also involved in the vice activities and they were placed under arrest when they came to the Central Police Division to hand over the passports of the arrested female Filipinas.

On 16 November 2012 at about 12.45 a.m. officers from SSB escorted B1 to Banyan Condominium located at No 3, Chwee Chian Road #03-01 Singapore to search the premises. The police retrieved 16 more passports of female Filipinos from the said unit. These passports belonged to the performing artistes working at the other 2 pubs that were owned by B1. These two pubs are namely “Givande pub” located at No 22 Keong Saik Road and “Club Rendevousz” located at No 59 Kampong Bahru Road, Singapore. On 19 November 2012 at about 12.00 pm, the 16 female Filipinas whose passport were seized from the residence of B1 came to SCB for interviews and were subsequently placed under arrest for offences under the Women’s Charter. Investigations revealed that 26 of the female Filipinos arrested (including the 9 female arrested at “Club Milagro” and 1 female Filipino from the Philippines Embassy) were providing sexual services to customers and they all stated in their statements that their prostitution earnings were collected by the pub management.

Investigations revealed that sometime in 2012, all 26 female Filipinos were in some form of financial difficulties. As such, they were procured by the Accused or her Filipino agents to work in Singapore as performing artistes and prostitutes. Once they were successfully arranged by B1 and the Accused to work in Singapore, they were immediately required to fulfill a verbal contract to pay B1 a certain sum of money. The Accused and B1 termed this verbal contract as “Utang”. This debt ranged from S$2,500 to $3,900. The amount of “Utang” was dependent on the costs incurred to get them into Singapore. For instance, the number of tickets required to be purchased to enable the girl to travel to Singapore because they may be rejected by the Philippines immigration from leaving the country. There will be extra costs incurred if air tickets had to be purchased for them to travel from their hometown to Manila before travelling to Singapore. Most of them knew they would be providing sexual services to their customers while working in the pub. This is because they were either briefed by the Accused in the Philippines or her agents. Some of the girls claimed that they only knew that they were going to work as waitresses or dancers in the pub. They further claimed that that they had no knowledge that they would be required to provide sexual services to their customers until they reached Singapore and were briefed by B1or his staff. Accordingly, since they were already in financial difficulties and coupled with the fact that they were in Singapore, they stated they had no choice but to provide sexual services to customers as directed by B1 and his staff.

Investigations further reveled that the girls were arranged by B1 to work in the 3 different pubs namely “Club Milagro” located at No 22 Keong Saik Road, “Givande pub” located at 22 Keong Saik Road and “Club Rendevousz” located at 59 Kampung Bahru Road that were owned by him. Initially, B1 arranged for all the girls to stay at Banyan Condominium located at No 3 Chwee Chuan Road #03-01, Singapore. Sometime in September 2012, five of them were...