Yap Weng Wah

Most recently, in August 2021, in light of a recent case where Chock Soon Seng, a former sex offender and private tutor, was sentenced in April 2021 to eight years' corrective training and six strokes of the cane for another series of sexual crimes against male children, the government of Singapore had expressed that there would be tougher measures be implemented to address the future sex crimes in courts, like increasing the current maximum penalties for sexual crimes on minors, and also released their details of assessing the sexual offenders and paedophiles' behaviours before sentencing. Precedent cases like that of Yap Weng Wah and another paedophilic sex offender Lim Hock Hin Kelvin (who was sentenced in 1997 to 40 years' imprisonment for sexually assaulting five male minors) were recalled and laid out as the most significant examples where the courts had imposed harsh penalties on the worst and chronic of sex offenders who showed a high level of re-offending.

Due to its significance, Yap's case was recalled in some news reports in light of certain local and foreign crimes involving online sex predators, paedophiles and underage sex. One instance was a 37-year-old Winnipeg man who preyed on a teenage girl from Singapore, with whom he befriended while playing an online video game, then repeatedly raping her and taking explicit nude photos when she went to Canada to meet him in April 2015. Another crime that recalled the Yap case was 38-year-old Soffiyan Hamzah, who befriended 15 boys below 18 years old from the internet and performed oral sex on these boys. Soffiyan was sentenced to 15 years' imprisonment on 3 January 2018 after pleading guilty to 8 out of 83 charges the month before in a district court of Singapore. A third case was British paedophile and criminal Mark Bridger, who was convicted of murdering 5-year-old April Jones and sentenced to life imprisonment on a whole life tariff (basically life without parole), for which the case recalled some sexual crimes committed in Singapore and Malaysia, including the case of Yap and his crimes.

In July 2015, The Straits Times published a e-book titled Guilty As Charged: 25 Crimes That Have Shaken Singapore Since 1965, which included the Yap case as one of the top 25 crimes that shocked the nation since its independence in 1965. The book was borne out of collaboration between the Singapore Police Force and the newspaper itself. The e-book was edited by ST News Associate editor Abdul Hafiz Abdul Samad. The paperback edition of the book was published and first hit the bookshelves in end-June 2017. The paperback edition first entered the ST bestseller list on 8 August 2017, a month after its publication.

On 16 January 2015, two years and four months after his arrest, 31-year-old Yap Weng Wah was brought to trial in the High Court of Singapore, before High Court judge Woo Bih Li. In the beginning of the trial, Yap pleaded guilty to 12 counts of sexual penetration with a minor and agreed to have 64 other charges to be taken into consideration during sentencing.

On 20 March 2015, 2 months after his conviction by the High Court, 31-year-old Yap was sentenced to a total of 30 years' imprisonment and 24 strokes of the cane, which was the minimum sentence sought by the prosecution. The sentence was backdated to 8 September 2012, the date of Yap's remand.

The case of Yap made headlines in Singapore and brought shock to Singaporeans since its revelation. Furthermore, despite being in his early thirties, Yap still possessed boyish looks, and his youthful appearance had made it harder for people to believe that he was the one who had terrorized Singapore through his sexually perverse acts, adding to the sensationalism of the case. Due to the nature of Yap's crimes and his use of the Internet to prey on his victims, there were public advisement warnings (including by the government) made for all people to remind them that there is more to be done to educate young people and parents on online risks, in order to prevent similar crimes from happening again. According to Singapore's national daily newspaper The Straits Times, Yap was one of the top ten people who made headlines nationwide in the year 2015.

While he was preying on pre-teen males in Singapore, Yap had also extended his targets beyond Singapore and into Malaysia, his country of birth. During his yearly visits to Malaysia, Yap would have sex with another 14 boys in Malaysia, all of them also aged below 16. He also filmed these sexual acts like he did in Singapore to the 31 victims he met there. These offences were also brought to light when police arrested Yap in September 2012. However, since the crimes involving these 14 boys were not committed in Singapore, Yap did not face any formal charges related to these 14 boys when he was first arrested and charged.

In June 2012, Yap's sexual offences were first discovered when the sister of one of Yap's 11-year-old victims checked her younger brother's mobile phone and found SMS messages between her brother and Yap. The brother and sister thus went to the police.

On 7 September 2012, after receiving a police report from another victim that Yap had sexually penetrated him, 29-year-old Yap was arrested by the police in his Yishun flat. Initially, Yap only confessed to having sex with three boys, but the 2,218 videos uncovered by the police had proven a much larger magnitude of his crimes than the extent Yap was willing to admit. On 8 September 2012, after he was formally charged in court for 76 sex-related charges, Yap was remanded for investigations. The arrest of Yap brought shock to those who knew him, including his colleagues and family back in Malaysia.

A select few of these 76 crimes were publicly released in certain articles covering Yap's crimes. One of these crimes took place on 4 February 2010, where in Hougang Swimming Complex, a 13-year-old boy was told to remove his school uniform in a toilet cubicle, where Yap sodomised him and filmed the act. In March 2010, a 15-year-old boy met up with Yap in a hotel, where Yap tried to undress and kiss the boy. Despite the victim's protests, Yap performed oral sex on him. On 25 September 2011, a 14-year-old boy was told to perform oral sex on Yap in a toilet cubicle in the Tampines Stadium.

Despite the alleged childhood sexual assaults he had experienced, Yap went on to further his studies after his graduation from primary school. It is possible that Yap had gone to university and earned a degree. Regardless, after undergoing education, Yap became a quality assurance engineer, and later worked as one at ASM Technology in Singapore since 2009. According to a colleague, Yap, who was known as "Travis" at work, was normally a quiet individual at work and never shown any signs of sexual perversions.

While he was working in Singapore, Yap, then 26 years old, began his sexual offences from November 2009 till June 2012, three months before Yap was arrested. In total, Yap had committed the offences to 31 pubescent boys aged between 11 and 15, who were not named to protect their identities.

Yap Weng Wah (born 1983), alias Wai Loon or Loon, is a Malaysian serial sex offender, who formerly worked as a quality assurance engineer, and is currently jailed in Singapore for 76 sexual offences committed against 31 teenage boys aged between 11 and 15 in Singapore. He befriended his victims online, had sex with them and filmed his illegal acts. During police investigations, Yap was found to have performed unnatural sex on 14 more boys in Malaysia in between his constant trips from Singapore to Malaysia before his arrest.

Born sometime in 1983, Yap is the eldest of three children, having a brother and a sister. His birthplace and hometown is in Ipoh, Malaysia.