Singaporean Amos Yee, 27, was released from a United States prison on parole on Thursday, November 20. He had been serving a sentence at Danville Correctional Center in Illinois after being sentenced in 2021 to six years in prison for possessing child pornography and grooming.
According to a victim’s information network, Yee had briefly been released on November 7 but was immediately taken back into custody. He was then released again on November 20 at around 7:15 a.m. local time, which is 9:15 p.m. Singapore time.
Checks on the Illinois State Police’s offender registry show that Yee is registered as a sex offender.
Parole History
This is not Yee’s first time being granted parole. In October 2023, he was released halfway through his six-year sentence but was taken back into custody about a month later for violating parole conditions.
Court Case Details
Yee was sentenced on December 3, 2021, after pleading guilty to grooming a 14-year-old girl online and asking her for naked pictures. Sixteen other charges were dismissed as part of a plea deal. His jail term was backdated to his arrest in October 2020.
The court heard that Yee, then 20, befriended the victim in February 2019 and began an “online courtship,” during which he repeatedly asked for naked photos. He also asked her to engage in roleplay and sexual fantasies, despite knowing she was only 14 years old. The prosecution said he used WhatsApp to “seduce, solicit, and lure” the victim and later distributed her photographs online.
Yee was arrested by US marshals at his apartment in Chicago’s Norwood Park East neighbourhood.
Background
It has been more than eight years since Yee was granted asylum by a US immigration court, despite opposition from the Department of Homeland Security.
Previously, Yee was jailed in Singapore in 2015 for wounding religious feelings through remarks about Christians. About a year later, he was jailed again and fined for similar remarks involving both Christians and Muslims.
