One-armed athlete pleads guilty to child trafficking, recruiting women for prostitution

National para-athlete Adam Kamis pleaded guilty on Monday (Jun 20) to 11 charges of recruiting women for prostitution and one count of child trafficking, for recruiting a 16-year-old girl with the intention of sexually exploiting her.
Adam, also known as “Adam OneArmRunner”, lost his right arm in a motorcycle accident, which also left his left arm paralysed. The para-athlete, who represented Singapore at the Commonwealth Games and ASEAN Para Games, said he had started the social escort agency in early 2013 to get out of debt.
Prosecutors said on Monday that Adam had taken to Facebook to recruit women, using the moniker “Angel Tan” to pass himself off as an escort girl working for the agency. He wanted to “pique their interest and gain their trust”, Deputy Public Prosecutor Sharmila Sripathy-Shanaz told the court.
Besides getting the victims to disclose their personal details in a “sexually explicit” questionnaire, Adam would also ask the women to indicate the sexual services they were willing to provide to clients, DPP Sripathy-Shanaz said. Then, he would “interview” the women in his Yishun flat, when his wife was not at home.
Adam told the women to strip, so he could “inspect the condition of their bodies”. To prove that they were indeed willing to provide sexual services, Adam would “try out” the women by having sex with them, DPP Sripathy-Shanaz told the court.
If the women did not perform satisfactorily, or were “awkward and lacking in skill and personality”, DPP Sripathy-Shanaz said, Adam would have sex with them again for “further verification”.
Prosecutors said between early 2013 and October 2015, when he was arrested, Adam had recruited 15 women. His victims included several students, a dental assistant, childcare teacher and an accountant, and were aged between 16 and 38.
The court heard the 16-year-old girl had come across Adam’s advertisement for a freelance job paying S$500 a day. She contacted “Angel Tan”, the moniker used by Adam. She met Adam, who introduced himself as a staff of the escort company, at his Yishun flat.
He persuaded her to let him “inspect” her body, assuring her that all the girls who attended the interview had to do the same. After she complied, Adam told her he needed to “test her sexual skills”, DPP Sripathy-Shanaz said. Despite telling Adam she was only 16, he persisted, telling her that no one would find out. He had sex with her, but in the days following, the girl stopped responding to his attempts to contact her again.
For procuring or attempting to procure a woman for the purpose of prostitution, Adam faces up to five years’ jail and a fine of up to S$10,000. For child trafficking, Adam could be jailed for up to 10 years, fined up to S$100,000. He could also be given up to six strokes of the cane.