THE STRAITS TIMES
FEB 9, 2003
The two faces of Raymond Pok
Devoted son
Good boyfriend
Model worker
Posing as a teen and promising cash for sex, Pok lured girls into a
rape trap and threatened to blackmail them with photos. But to
friends and family, he seemed anything but the sex fiend that he
was. BEN NADARAJAN reports
EVERY night, Raymond Pok would spend almost an hour on the phone
whispering sweet nothings to his girlfriend, May, in
Thailand.
Then he would get off the phone and go online to prey on young
girls, inviting them to be his 'temporary girlfriends' for
cash.
Last March, barely four months after he hooked up with May, he
raped two girls, aged 13 and 14.
May, a 19-year-old undergraduate who speaks fluent English, says
she knew nothing of his dark side. Her Pok was a 'sweet gentleman'
who visited her often in Bangkok and always made her feel confident
and good about herself.
Yes, he did ask her for sex, she admitted in an overseas call with
The Sunday Times.
'But I told him I am not comfortable with it and he accepted it and
we just hugged and kissed.'
Never once was he rough with her or force her to do anything
against her will, she said. He was arrested last July, and she
found out only when she called his home while he was in remand. His
family told her everything.
'I did not know what to say,' she recalled. 'I wanted to hang up
the phone and dial again to check if I had called the correct
number.
'I did not believe it was him because it sounded so different from
the man I know.'
Even though Pok pleaded guilty, she still loves him.
'I wondered how I could still love a person who did so many bad
things, but even now, I cannot get him out of my mind,' she
said.
She used up much of her savings to come here last November for two
weeks. She did not get to see him as only family members are
allowed to visit prisoners on remand.
So Pok's mother, Madam Chua Bee Eng, played postman, passing love
notes and messages between the pair.
Madam Chua said her son's last message to May before she went home
was: 'I love you very much, but please do not wait for me. Find
yourself a good man to take care of you and love you.'
May broke down on hearing those words.
Pok's colleagues at the Sony Precision Engineering Center, where he
had worked as an assistant engineer since December 2000, described
him as very shy and quiet.
Thin and bespectacled, Pok was especially shy around women, said
one man who worked with him.
'He always seemed to blush when we talked about women and
relationships but he mentioned that he had found a girl he loved in
Thailand,' said the man in his 30s.
Pok was also a model employee. His manager, Mr Kan Shik Mang, told
the court that Pok was 'always willing and able to take on
increased responsibility'.
He called Pok a 'quick learner with sound analytical skill' and
said he has a 'positive attitude and is very hardworking and
independent'.
Pok's mother, a production operator, says he was hardworking but
rather childish. She told The Sunday Times a day after he was
sentenced: 'Until his arrest, he was still asking me to shave him,'
she said in between sobs.
When he came home from work, he often planted himself in front of
the computer for hours, refusing to eat.
'I thought he was busy doing his work, so I did not disturb him,'
said Madam Chua.
Pok kept his feelings and his activities to himself. p> She
said: 'After he was arrested, he just said to me, 'Mummy, I did
very bad things which will make you lose face. I would rather have
died than make our family embarrassed.' '
A sex fiend who used Net to find rape victims
THE pervert took over as soon as Raymond Pok went online.
Usually it would be in the dark, while his sisters, with whom he
shared a bedroom in the family's three-room flat in Bukit Purmei,
were sound asleep.
Last March, he posted this message in an Internet chatroom, Teens'
Channel: 'Will pay $500 for temporary girlfriend.'
He spun a sob story any teen could empathise with: His girlfriend
had dumped him and he wanted to show her he could find someone
else.
He had done it before. In 1999, a 14-year-old girl who responded to
his message carried on a sexual relationship with him for more than
two years.
The two young girls who responded to his ploy in March did so out
of curiosity. He claimed to be a teen like them and spent hours
coaxing them to meet him, claiming he only wanted kisses and
affection. Instead, he took them separately to a multi-storey
carpark and raped them.
His promised the 14-year-old a $50 hongbao if she did what he
wanted.
But he not only raped her but switched the $50 in the hongbao with
a piece of paper. All she got was chlamydia, a sexually-transmitted
disease that can cause infertility.
He took the 13-year-old to the same carpark, with a video camera
that he started even as he began undressing her.
One of his victims spoke to The Sunday Times after Pok was
sentenced on Tuesday. She said she'd never had a boyfriend
before.
'I was just too curious for my own good. I wanted to see if this
guy was cute and why he had to find a girlfriend on the Net,' she
said.
She described Pok as a sweet-talker who gave the impression that he
was a sensitive guy looking for some affection.
'He always had a way of countering any arguments I had for not
meeting him.'
However, when they met, he hardly said a word and did not seem
interested in anything about her, 'except for my body', the girl
recalled.
Tears welling in her eyes, she added: 'I always had the idea that
my first sexual encounter would be with someone I love and who
loves me. But that beautiful dream will now always be just a
fantasy.'
She has avoided chatrooms ever since and rarely goes online now
except to do research for her schoolwork. The traumatised teenager
is now seeing a psychiatrist.
Pok had threatened to post the girls' nude pictures online or send
it to their friends and family. He did this to buy their silence
and to get more sex. His first victim allowed herself to be raped
three more times.
But it also led to the second girl reporting him to the police
because she could not take his harassment any longer.
Pok was arrested in July after police officers laid a trap and
arrested him at Joo Chiat Complex. His saving grace was probably
that he pleaded guilty early, sparing his victims the embarrassment
of having to speak in court.
