SINGAPORE - YouTuber Darryl Ian Koshy, 32, better known as Dee Kosh, appeared in a district court on Thursday (Aug 19) and was charged with offences including three counts of offering cash to boys below 18 for sexual services.
Koshy, who was handed seven charges in all, is also accused of three offences under the Films Act and one under the Children and Young Persons Act.
His alleged offences involved at least four boys between 15 and 17 years old.
The Singaporean is accused of offering $2,000 to a 16-year-old boy in February 2017 in exchange for allowing him to perform oral sex on the teenager.
According to court documents, between March and June 2018, Koshy allegedly attempted to procure an indecent act from a 15-year-old boy by asking the latter to perform sexual acts in exchange for an undisclosed sum of money.
The YouTuber is said to have offered $1,000 to a 17-year-old boy in July that year in exchange for oral sex from the teenager.
In August last year, Koshy allegedly offered $1,000 to another 17-year-old boy for a similar act.
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The court documents did not state if the alleged victims accepted the offers.
Koshy had made a name for himself with parody music videos and won notice for his stand-up comedy.
Accusations against him first made the headlines last year.
At the time, he had 380,000 followers on his YouTube channel and was known for food reviews on the Night Owl Cinematics (NOC) YouTube channel.
In an earlier statement, NOC said it had received a request from Koshy's management "for him to be released of any professional service engagement with us".
It added: "We can confirm that he has no outstanding or ongoing projects with NOC at present.
"All further collaborations with Dee Kosh have been put on hold indefinitely."
Several firms that Koshy had previously worked with, including Huawei, Foodpanda and Lenovo, also said earlier that their engagements with him had ended and there were no ongoing or future projects planned.
Power 98 FM, where he used to host weekday night shows, said last year that he had been put on leave and that the station "does not tolerate any form of harassment".
Koshy’s bail was set at $20,000 on Thursday and his case has been adjourned to Sept 15.
For each count of offering cash to a youngster below 18 in exchange for sexual services, an offender can be jailed for up to two years and fined.
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This article was first published in The Straits Times. Permission required for reproduction.
