Former Mediacorp actor Ian Fang was sentenced to 40 months' jail in May 2025 after pleading guilty to sexual offences with a 15-year-old girl, and had his Singapore permanent residency revoked ahead of deportation.
Fang, born Fang Weijie in Shanghai in 1989, moved to Singapore at 13 and spent 12 years as a full-time Mediacorp actor from 2011 to 2023. Named one of the broadcaster's 8 Dukes of Caldecott Hill, he won Best Newcomer at the Star Awards for his debut in Don't Stop Believin' and starred in dramas including On the Fringe. After leaving Mediacorp he worked as an acting teacher with a child modelling school.
He met the victim, then 15, at an entertainment event in May 2024, and they began communicating daily. Between June and July 2024 he had sex with the teenager on nine occasions at various locations, including a hotel room where she was quarantined for Covid-19, his private residence, and even a private hospital room where she was being treated for flu. Prosecutors noted much of the sex was unprotected despite her requests.
Fang pleaded guilty to three charges of sexual penetration of a girl under 16, with three similar charges taken into consideration, along with one count of obstructing justice and one count of stalking for trying to manipulate the victim into not pressing charges. An initial gag order on his identity was lifted at the prosecution's request; the victim's identity remains protected.
On May 19, 2025 he was sentenced to 40 months' imprisonment and began serving his term on June 16. The sentence provoked public debate over why no caning was imposed, a question lawyers attributed to the victim being 15 rather than under 14 and the absence of a legally defined exploitative relationship. The victim's mother called the term far too lenient and vowed to sue him until he goes bankrupt.
In February 2026 the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority revoked Fang's permanent resident status, announcing he would be deported and barred from re-entering Singapore upon release. From breakout television star to convicted child sex offender, his case became one of the most shocking celebrity downfalls in the country's entertainment history.
The fallout extended beyond Fang himself. Mediacorp faced questions about its duty of care toward young talents, and acting schools across the island reviewed their safeguarding policies for minors. The victim's mother's public vow to pursue civil action kept the case in the headlines long after sentencing, ensuring the scandal would follow Fang well beyond his prison term and eventual deportation.