/ 19 December 2007

Itsy-bitsy pink bikini lands serviceman in jail

A Singapore national serviceman who sashayed into a lift early one morning wearing only a pink bikini has been handed a day’s jail and a S$11 000 ($7 529) fine by a court in the city-state, a newspaper said on Tuesday.

Tan Wen Zhong (21) admitted to five charges, including “outraging the modesty” of the woman who shared the lift with him and “fraudulent possession of women’s underwear”, Singapore’s Straits Times reported.

The paper said a subsequent police search of his apartment turned up 46 pieces of women’s underwear and bikinis as well as four obscene films.

Tan, who was completing Singapore’s mandatory national service when he committed the offence in April, was also accused of grabbing a 23-year-old woman’s buttocks a year ago and of shoplifting a pair of sunglasses two years ago.

In mitigation, Tan’s lawyer said his client had been badly affected by his parents’ divorce during his formative years. – AFP