Singapore blogger in US court for child porn

BLOGGER Amos Yee ( pic), 20, was charged with solicitation and possession of child porn in an Illinois court, according to local media reports.

Yee, who was jailed twice in Singapore in 2015 and 2016 for wounding religious feelings, was granted asylum in the United States in 2017 and has been living in Chicago since then.

He allegedly exchanged nude photos and “thousands” of messages with a 14-year-old Texas girl while in Chicago, reported the Chicago Sun-Times newspaper.

Yee appeared at the Leighton Criminal Courthouse in Chicago on Friday for his bond hearing.

His bail was set at US$1mil (RM4.15mil) and he has been banned from using the Internet while awaiting trial, it added.

According to the report, prosecutors had obtained messages Yee exchanged between April and July last year which included nude photos he asked for and received from the girl, as well as nude photos of himself that he sent to her.

They said that the girl repeatedly brought up her age, and Yee had told her to remove her age from her WhatsApp profile.

After their relationship soured, the girl reached out to a group called “interested in exposing pedophiles” and Homeland Security officials were notified, said the report, citing prosecutors.