Former Power 98 DJ and YouTuber Dee Kosh, whose real name is Darryl Ian Koshy, was sentenced to 32 weeks in jail on August 5, 2022, for sexual offences involving teenage boys between February 2017 and August 2020.
The sentencing came nearly two years after allegations of sexual misconduct were first made against the former radio personality. Koshy solicited paid sex from a total of four teenage boys over the three-and-a-half-year period. In May 2022, he pleaded guilty to attempting to procure an indecent act from a young person and communicating with a minor to obtain sexual services, in relation to two of the teenage victims. Two other charges related to the other two victims were taken into consideration for sentencing. He also admitted to making an obscene film by secretly filming a sexual encounter with another man, then aged between 23 and 25, without consent, with two further charges of making and possessing obscene films taken into consideration.
District Judge Jasvender Kaur ordered that the 14-week sentence for attempting to sexually exploit a young person under the Children and Young Persons Act and the 18-week sentence for communicating with a minor be served consecutively, with the four-week obscene-film sentence running concurrently, bringing the total to 32 weeks. The judge highlighted that Koshy had brushed off one of the teenagers when the boy repeatedly said he was underage, and that he took deliberate steps to conceal his actions, moving conversations to Telegram and Snapchat for their privacy features. She rejected the defence’s argument that he did so merely to be discreet about his sexuality, and noted that his use of the internet to perpetrate the crimes was an aggravating factor, with his social media presence helping him locate one of his adolescent victims.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Lim Ying Min had described Koshy as a seasoned criminal skilled at avoiding detection, saying his offences were highly premeditated, and sought five to eight months’ jail. Defence counsel Johannes Hadi asked for two-and-a-half months, arguing his client was remorseful and had good prospects for rehabilitation as assessed by a psychiatrist. The judge found otherwise, pointing to a lack of remorse demonstrated through comments Koshy made in a YouTube video about the case earlier that year, which has since been removed.
Koshy was released from jail in March 2023 and returned to social media, sharing details about his time behind bars. In a widely watched interview with veteran influencer Xiaxue, he dished gossip about life in Changi Prison, naming ex-Mediacorp actress Fiona Xie, socialite Kim Lim and radio DJ Sonia Chew as the three most popular local female celebrities among inmates, and repeating rumours about City Harvest Church founder Kong Hee allegedly censoring newspapers with correction fluid while serving his sentence from 2017 to 2019. The interview underscored how thoroughly his fall had flipped him from media personality to prison-storyteller.
Dee Kosh’s case remains one of the most high-profile influencer convictions in Singapore, alongside later cases involving ex-Mediacorp actor Ian Fang, music producer Ken Lim and scriptwriter-actor Lev Paniflov, all of which have fuelled public debate about power, celebrity and accountability.