Stranger danger: Residents in Toh Yi warned about man stalking children in estate

SINGAPORE – Parents and teachers of Pei Hwa Presbyterian primary school in Toh Yi have been told to be alert to a bespectacled man in his 30s who has been spotted chatting with children to get their telephone numbers.

A group of residents in the same estate, who call themselves the Toh Yi Residents’ Network, had also alerted residents in July 2024 after the man allegedly followed a young girl and her helper to their Housing Board block in the estate.

Mr Derrick Tan, who chairs the network, told residents in an advisory that the same man had on separate occasions asked “a group of boys to buy things for him and tried to invite them to his place”.

Several residents received the information via a Telegram chat group, said Mr Jeff Escanuela, who has lived in the Toh Yi area since 2007.

Mr Escanuela, a 24-year-old university student, said: “I shared the link to the Telegram chat with my family members as I have a younger sister in secondary school. I just wanted her to be careful.”

The Telegram alert, which was shared widely, has prompted parents in a WhatsApp group to ask if a recent exchange in Thomson is related.

In the incident on Nov 5 at Thomson Plaza, an individual recording a video can be heard loudly questioning a man for approaching his nine-year-old daughter while she was alone at a claw machine in the mall.

In the three-minute-long video, the man recording can be heard accusing the stranger of taking down his daughter’s telephone number.

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The stranger bears a striking resemblance to the alleged stalker in Toh Yi estate.

The girl’s father made a police report, which The Straits Times saw. He claimed his daughter was pressured into giving the stranger her telephone number.

The father said he confronted the man after his daughter told him about the incident. He then got the stranger to delete her number, and the man complied.

The stranger, who identifies himself as John, tells the father in the video that he will not be harassing young girls.

He says he tries to make friends with a few young girls, and has a “sexual case waiting for investigations”.

“I really have no intentions but (I) just want to make friends,” John says in the video, adding: “I’m not going to make friends with young girls any more.”

In the video, which has been shared widely, the stranger can be heard promising the father to delete messages from other children.

In the police report, the girl’s father claimed that he saw messages in the stranger’s phone that suggested the man had tried to ask young girls out.

The father added that some messages were “teasing and uncomfortable to any parent”.

ST contacted John but he did not answer the calls.

Parents in the WhatsApp group also shared a screengrab of a message purportedly from a woman claiming to be John’s mother.

In the message, the writer says John had previously sought professional help.

She said: “Because of the nature of his conditions, his rigid and impulsive behaviour gets him into unnecessary trouble... Give us time to manage his problems.”

The woman also apologised to the parents of the nine-year-old girl for causing them distress.

Police confirmed a report has been made and said they are speaking to a 30-year-old man in connection with the Thomson Plaza incident.

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This article was first published in The Straits Times. Permission required for reproduction.