On June 19, 2025, Gan Qi Xuan, a 26-year-old man, was sentenced to one year and nine months' imprisonment and two strokes of the cane after pleading guilty to possessing child pornography. He was found in possession of 178 videos and 153 still images containing child sexual abuse material, which he had downloaded from the Dark Web and systematically stored on his electronic devices and cloud accounts.
Gan’s criminal conduct was discovered during a police raid at his residence in August 2023. Although court documents did not specify how he came under investigation, the search uncovered significant volumes of exploitative material stored both locally and online. On August 19, 2024, he pleaded guilty to one charge of possessing child pornography, an offence under Singapore law that carries mandatory imprisonment and corporal punishment.
According to Deputy Public Prosecutor Koh Yi Wen, Gan first learned about the Dark Web around 2015. During his initial visit to a forum dedicated to child pornography, he did not download any material due to concerns about potential viruses. However, his curiosity escalated, and about three months later, he began downloading videos and images depicting the sexual abuse of children.
Following that, Gan accessed the Dark Web regularly to obtain illegal content. After downloading these files, he would watch them and sort them into folders on his laptop for easier reference. When the laptop’s storage became insufficient, he transferred the materials to his Google Drive account. In mid-2021, when his laptop broke down, he replaced it with a central processing unit and continued to store the files. During this time, he also set up an additional cloud storage account with more free space than Google Drive, and migrated his content there.
Despite no longer actively viewing the material by 2021, Gan still retained all the files in his possession when authorities conducted the raid in 2023. His actions reflect ongoing and deliberate possession of child sexual abuse content, which is a serious offence under Singapore law, regardless of whether the content was recently accessed.
During the sentencing hearing on June 19, 2025, Gan's defence lawyer, Mr Teo Choo Kee, told the court that his client had since stopped viewing such material. He also disclosed that Gan had lost his place at a university as a result of the case, although further details about his education were not shared.
Mr Teo stated that Gan was remorseful for his actions and had come to terms with the consequences. However, the prosecution highlighted the severity of the offence, particularly the systematic collection, storage, and categorisation of child abuse content over a sustained period.
Singapore’s legal system treats child pornography offences with utmost seriousness, in alignment with global commitments to combat child exploitation and protect victims from repeated harm. Even possession alone—without distribution—warrants jail time and caning in appropriate cases, particularly when the quantity and nature of the material demonstrate sustained interest and premeditation.
The sentence of one year and nine months, along with two strokes of the cane, reflects both the gravity of the offence and the mitigating factors presented by the defence. The court did not comment further on rehabilitation or post-sentence supervision.
Gan Qi Xuan’s case adds to a growing number of prosecutions involving digital and online offences linked to the Dark Web, which continues to be a platform for illegal trafficking of child sexual abuse material globally. Authorities continue to monitor and trace such activity through cybercrime investigations and cross-border collaborations.
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