Singapore: A Singaporean green activist was on Monday jailed for 12 weeks for having paid sex with an underage girl in October 2010.
Howard Shaw, the grandson of the founder of Shaw Organisation and former executive director of the Singapore Environment Council, admitted to paying 500 Singapore dollars for sex with the "minor" girl.
Shaw, 41, is appealing against the sentence, according to online media reports.
Pleading for a conditional discharge of a fine for Shaw, defense council Harpreet Singh Nehal maintained that the "minor" girl was not looking her age and was 17 years and seven month old at the time of the offence, just five months short of legal age of 18.
The girl, whose identify has been protected, was also alleged to have "colluded" with the pimp to hide her real age and operated through an online vice ring.
Singh said Shaw had no criminal intent and made an "honest and reasonable mistake", and the reasonable mistake was that the minor showed no signs of her age, either in appearance or behavior.
Sentencing Shaw, Senior District Judge See Kee Oon said since he did not ask the girl about her age, it was not a "honest and reasonable mistake".
Shaw is one of the 51 people including some of the well known personalities who have allegedly had sex with the same "minor" girl. Shaw is the second to be handed a jail sentence.
A 39-year old school principle was jailed eight weeks in April on pleading guilty for having paid sex with the same girl.
Cases of others involved in the paid sex with the girl were pending.
The case came to light earlier this year following a police crackdown on the online vice ring, and followed on investigations that discovered names of some of the top personalities in Singapore.
PTI
