Dee Kosh went from YouTube star to sex offender

Former media figure Dee Kosh began his career in the public eye in Singapore in 2011 as a YouTuber. Due to his meteoric rise to fame, he was offered a job as a radio disc jockey in just one year’s time.

But fast forward a decade, and the 33-year-old, whose real name is Darryl Ian Koshy, was sentenced to 32 weeks in jail on Friday (August 5), for sexual offenses involving underage males. He was given the punishment for his real name.

CNA retraces Kosh’s disgraced and, at several turns, sordid downfall from his breakout fame to his labeling by prosecutors as a “seasoned criminal” guilty of “predatory behaviour.” CNA does this by tracing Kosh’s fall from popularity to his labeling as a “seasoned criminal.”

Kosh’s hilarious skits differentiated him from other local YouTubers in the early days of social media and video sharing, which helped him amass hundreds of thousands of subscribers on the network.

One of his videos, a spoof of the Korean blockbuster hit Gangnam Style, has received more than 3 million views. This makes it one of his most popular videos.

In April of 2012, Kosh began his career in radio by taking on the role of host for the Say It With Music segment broadcast on 98.7FM. After that, in January of the following year, he began working with radio personality Divian Nair on the show known as The Double D Show.

In 2014, he parted ways with Mediacorp to take a part-time hosting position at Power 98, a radio station owned and operated by SAFRA. There, he was in charge of his own nighttime show.

Disgusting proposals and online chats

Court documents would later disclose that Kosh committed his first offense between the years 2016 and 2017, when he utilized a hidden camera to film himself having sex with a victim without the latter’s knowledge or consent. This offense would eventually be considered his first infraction.

Between the years 2016 and 2020, the victim had been frequenting Kosh’s residence, where she engaged in both paid and unpaid sexual activities.

When they had their initial conversation in 2017, another victim disclosed to Kosh that he was less than 18 years old.

Kosh persisted in asking the victim questions of a sexual nature, even after telling him later that he had a “indecent proposal” to make.

After that, Kosh made the victim an offer of S$400 to perform a sexual act on him, which he eventually increased to S$2,000 when the victim denied the offer multiple times.

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The victim’s roommate secretly recorded their chat on camera for later review.

When he initially communicated with Kosh in 2018, a third victim was under the age of 16 at the time.

Kosh made the proposition that they continue their communication in a “private chat” on Telegram, where he offered the victim anywhere from one hundred to two hundred and fifty Singapore dollars in exchange for sexual services.

After Kosh made yet another promise of money in exchange for sex with the victim, the victim eventually stopped talking to Kosh.

On each of the three victims’ respective social media platforms, Kosh initiated contact.

They all stated that they did not immediately report Kosh’s offenses to the authorities because they were terrified of offending a star who had a huge number of fans as the reason why they did not do so.

In 2020, an Instagram user commented about being sexually harassed by Kosh, and provided pictures of messaging exchanges between the two of them. This marked a turning point in the matter.

As time went on, additional victims came forward to discuss their own personal experiences with Kosh. When these victims realized that they were not the only ones affected by Kosh, they filed at least four reports with the police.

The first thing Kosh did in reaction was to categorically refute all of the claims. One of the victims was even sent a letter from Kosh’s attorneys requesting that he refrain from disclosing claims on any forum. This was done in response to the victim receiving the letter.

However, a few days later he issued a lengthy statement of apology, in which he admitted that there was “truth to some of the things that are being said now.”

Taking advantage of his status

In October of 2020, Kosh was taken into custody by law enforcement officials at his residence, where a total of 25 pornographic recordings were discovered on his computer devices.

In August of 2021, he was taken into custody and charged with several crimes, including the attempted sexual exploitation of a minor and the production of pornographic films.

After that, Kosh’s employer, Power 98, removed him from all of his responsibilities.

In May of this year, he admitted to engaging in sexual misconduct with two minors who were under the age of 18.

Kosh entered a guilty plea to the charges of seeking to get an impure act from a young person and communicating with a minor with the intent of obtaining sexual services.

In addition to this, he entered a guilty plea to a third count of creating an offensive film.

On Wednesday, a public prosecutor argued that the defendant took advantage of his celebrity profile and utilized money to seduce the victims into the crime. The prosecutor also stated that the defendant’s behavior was highly calculated and relentless.

The results of a psychiatric evaluation that was required by the court determined that Kosh did not have paedophilic disorder and that the likelihood of him committing another crime was minimal.

Because of this, his attorney asked for a sentence of two and a half months in jail, which is significantly less time than the prosecution requested, which ranged from five to eight months.

On Friday, a judge referred to Kosh’s use of the Internet to commit his crimes as “aggravating.” The judge also observed that his presence on social media was critical in locating one of the adolescent victims he had targeted.

He was given a sentence of thirty-two weeks in jail for his crime.

That morning, Kosh announced on Instagram for the first time since apologizing in 2020 that he was on his way to jail. This was Kosh’s first post on Instagram since apologizing.
He said in his note, “It’s time to pay the price.”