On Friday, August 5, 2018, Singaporean YouTuber Darryl Ian Koshy, better known by his stage as Dee Kosh, was sentenced to more than seven months in prison for sexual offenses involving an alleged minor. In several cases, the 33-year-old criminal also filmed himself committing his crimes.
According to Mashable Asia, assistant prosecutor Lim Ying Min revealed that Koshy used his fame to lure the victims. Koshy was charged with three counts of human trafficking. It was also alleged that he attempted to solicit sexual activity from a child or young person. According to reports in The Strait Times, the English-language daily newspaper in Singapore, the young man was a minor.
Six different people went to the police with complaints about Koshy after allegations against him were published on Instagram in August 2020. A year later, towards the end of August 2021, he was arrested for the crime of recording his sexual activity with a male companion.
Charges against Darryl Ian Koshy, aka Dee Kosh
According to reports that have surfaced in the local press, Dee Kosh has been found guilty of attempting to force a young girl into sexual activity in exchange for monetary compensation. The sources further point out that Koshy initially offered the person around 400 Singapore dollars (S$), but this amount was later increased to 2,000 Singapore dollars (S$). According to a Strait Times article, Koshy first met the boy in February 2017 on Singapore’s Orchard Road, near Takashimaya department store. Allegedly, the person was working in the florist industry at the time.
After some time, Koshy reportedly enlisted the help of his Instagram followers to find the boy’s contact information. He then communicated with the person in question via WhatsApp, where he offered them a job. Later, when Koshy learned that the boy had no girlfriend, he came to the child to take action against sexual acts for money; However, the boy refused.
Following the incident described in the previous paragraph, Dee Kosh was found to have promised a total of five such sexual solicitations. After one of those individuals made their allegations in August 2020, five others followed shortly thereafter.
This YouTuber faced triple indictment earlier this year for allegedly providing money to youths to trick them into soliciting illegal sexual acts from minors. Likewise, he was also charged with three counts of Films Act felonies in which he filmed himself engaging in sexual activity with men. It was stated that Singapore police found at least 25 such recordings on his device after his arrest. In addition to the charges discussed previously, Dee Kosh has also been charged with committing an offense falling under the Children and Young Persons Act.
There’s a chance not all of his victims were children, but a local publication claims at least four of his victims were between the ages of 15 and 17. A person in Singapore over the age of 16 may have such a sexual connection; However, persons up to the age of 18 also enjoy some legal protection against sexual exploitation.
Possible penalties Darryl Ian Koshy would have faced compared to his actual sentence
Under Singapore law, Koshy could have been sentenced to a maximum of two years in prison for any case in which he attempted to entice youth into sexual activity in return for monetary compensation. Instead, he might have had to pay a fine. Despite this, the 33-year-old Filipino was only sentenced to 32 weeks in prison. It is uncertain how much fine he may have had to pay.
Meanwhile, Kosh could have been sentenced to up to five years in prison if found guilty of exploiting a minor for sexual activity and charged under the Children and Youth Act. In this scenario, he would have been held accountable for violating the Children and Youth Act. If found guilty of such a crime, he would have faced either imprisonment or a fine of up to S$10,000, or both.
In addition to the other offenses he committed, the man, who used to be a DJ and YouTuber, could have faced one to two years in prison and the possibility of a twenty thousand to forty thousand Singapore dollar fine for recording such acts in the Movie.
As a result of these allegations, Dee Kosh was fired from his position at Power 98FM, and other companies including Night Owl Cinematics Productions and Huawei severed ties with the disgraced YouTuber.