{"id":374154,"date":"2026-04-11T06:21:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-11T06:21:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/374154\/"},"modified":"2026-04-11T06:21:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-11T06:21:10","slug":"auckland-man-kuljinder-singh-caught-in-hamilton-snapchat-sexual-hook-up-with-teen-girl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/374154\/","title":{"rendered":"Auckland man Kuljinder Singh caught in Hamilton Snapchat sexual hook-up with teen girl"},"content":{"rendered":"

Singh, 39, then asked the victim if she wanted sexual intercourse, to which she said no. <\/p>\n

The older teen then asked Singh if he wanted to know their true ages.<\/p>\n

It was then that he realised they were younger than he had thought, and he got scared, quickly gathered his belongings, and left the property.<\/p>\n

Singh was later charged with sexual connection with a young person, for which he was sentenced in the Hamilton District Court<\/a> this week.<\/p>\n

In trying to keep his client out of prison<\/a>, Singh\u2019s counsel, Philip Morgan, KC, said photos of the victim showed she looked older than 13, \u201cunquestionably so\u201d, he told Judge Stephen Clark.<\/p>\n

Morgan said the case centred on one single sexual act, performed by Singh, who believed \u201cwrongly and foolishly that he was with somebody older than she was\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"KuljinderKuljinder Singh was sentenced in Hamilton District Court.<\/p>\n

\u201cWho then stopped when he had this question about whether he wanted to know how old they were,\u201d Morgan submitted. <\/p>\n

While the older girl took a photo of Singh during the act, Singh had taken a photo of the victim around the same time, which Morgan said proved that she was a willing participant.<\/p>\n

Judge Clark said he had not looked at the photos but asked Morgan if the victim looked older than 13.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnquestionably, so,\u201d Morgan replied.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not necessarily the best judge of these things, but this complainant did not have the physique of a 13-year-old or certainly what I think the general public would think of as a 13-year-old.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd the facial expressions were anything but evidencing reluctance or discomfort.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018It will stay with me\u2019<\/p>\n

In court, the victim said through her impact statement that she had been left traumatised by the incident.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are times it replays in my mind,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s like I don\u2019t get a choice to move on, even when I try.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt follows me into quiet moments, into my thoughts … It will stay with me for a long time.\u201d<\/p>\n

In his submissions, Morgan said Singh was deeply remorseful.<\/p>\n

He said Singh was a man of good character, had no previous convictions, and brought to court letters of support from his wife and members of the Sikh community.<\/p>\n

He had also had nine sessions with a psychotherapist and planned on continuing with therapy. <\/p>\n

Morgan urged Judge Clark to hand down a sentence of home detention, describing the offending as a \u201cone-off instance\u201d with somebody who was not groomed and \u201cgenuinely consenting\u201d. <\/p>\n

Morgan said Singh\u2019s crime was that \u201che didn\u2019t make any enquiry at all as to how old [the victim] was\u201d.<\/p>\n

Asked about his ability to pay reparation, Morgan said his client\u2019s financial position was \u201calarming\u201d, even though Singh and his wife both worked.<\/p>\n

However, they would try to pull together $2000 over the next three months, the court was told.<\/p>\n

\u2018You have a lot of work to do\u2019<\/p>\n

Judge Clark noted that at the time of the offending, Singh was in a state of \u201cheightened financial stress\u201d.<\/p>\n

He\u2019d withdrawn from his usual sports and instead was \u201cengaging with people on social media, namely Snapchat\u201d.<\/p>\n

The offending had impacted Singh\u2019s marriage, but his wife had stood by him.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe seriously thought about leaving you, and you have a lot of work to do to rebuild her trust in you,\u201d the judge remarked.<\/p>\n

Singh had told a pre-sentence report writer that he wasn\u2019t attracted to young girls and didn\u2019t realise the victim\u2019s age.<\/p>\n

He had since been doing voluntary work at a yacht club and had been upfront with them about his offending.<\/p>\n

Given Singh\u2019s rehabilitative work and the supportive network he continued to have, Judge Clark felt he could reach a sentence of home detention.<\/p>\n

After adopting a starting point of three years\u2019 imprisonment, and applying discounts for Singh\u2019s plea, remorse, and good character, the judge reached 20 months.<\/p>\n

He then converted that to 10 months\u2019 home detention and declined the Crown\u2019s request to add Singh\u2019s name to the child sex offender register.<\/p>\n

Judge Clark also ordered Singh to pay a $2000 emotional harm payment within 90 days.<\/p>\n

Belinda Feek is an Open Justice reporter based in Waikato. She has worked at NZME for 11 years and has been a journalist for 22.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Singh, 39, then asked the victim if she wanted sexual intercourse, to which she said no. The older…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":374155,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[51973,51,9525,63772,6095,6868,6288,28429,78,195190,13457,5158,9610,111,43,139,69,12663,15147,17703,22498,5317,5163,1361,6382,13797,6736,3608,6123,102,4741],"class_list":{"0":"post-374154","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-zealand","8":"tag-13yearold","9":"tag-auckland","10":"tag-caught","11":"tag-consenting","12":"tag-engaged","13":"tag-girl","14":"tag-hamilton","15":"tag-hookup","16":"tag-in","17":"tag-kuljinder","18":"tag-look","19":"tag-man","20":"tag-married","21":"tag-new-zealand","22":"tag-news","23":"tag-newzealand","24":"tag-nz","25":"tag-photo","26":"tag-prove","27":"tag-sexual","28":"tag-singh","29":"tag-snapchat","30":"tag-teen","31":"tag-that","32":"tag-took","33":"tag-used","34":"tag-was","35":"tag-were","36":"tag-while","37":"tag-with","38":"tag-young"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/374154","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=374154"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/374154\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/374155"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=374154"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=374154"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=374154"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}