YOU want to play detective. You seek the truth. You examine the evidence. Here's the story:

A man who claims to be a tutor and a counsellor to wayward youth, contacts the police. He alleges:

A girl, 13, offered him sex for money to buy branded goods.

A group of teenage boys and girls have been passing around what looked like drugs.

Both allegations are made within a week - on 1 and 4 Sep.

All, he claims, in the name of cleaning up the neighbourhood in the north-east of Singapore.

He also calls the media, saying he wants to 'voice his concern'.

But the school, its students and their parents, all cry foul.

What it boils down to is his word against theirs.

Whom to believe?

That is the dilemma.

The parents and the school vice-principal say all the man's allegations are false. And they have questioned his motive for going to the police and the press.

The girl attends the same school as the group of boys and girls.

Her family has filed two police reports against him for harassing them.

We are not using the real names of the parties involved to protect the students' identities.

Accusation 1: 'Girl tried to solicit me for sex.'

Mr Ang, 43, filed a police report against Jane, 13.

He got to know her through one of his students. He claimed the boy wanted him to help with Jane's 'wild behaviour'.

In his police report, Mr Ang said Jane and the boy were at his flat on 30Aug, 'to check out the suitability of using the common area... for holding her birthday barbecue'.

He alleged that on three occasions when the boy used his handphone, Jane 'solicited me for sex with her'.

Mr Ang claimed: 'She asked if I wanted to have sex with her. The first time she said it, I thought I heard wrongly.' He alleged that she asked for $200 as she said she was 'a virgin'.

'I was taken aback and told her I wasn't into such illicit things,' he claimed.

Jane's parents vehemently denied the man's accusations.

They have filed two police reports against the man for harassing them and their daughter, and for making false allegations against them.

The girl's mother told The New Paper on Sunday: 'Why he is doing this to a 13-year-old girl? What is he trying to achieve by ruining her reputation?'

The girl said, sobbing: 'I don't know what he's trying to do, harassing me and making false reports to the police and then my principal.'

According to Jane's mother, her daughter got to know Mr Ang less than two months ago through one of her friends. Mr Ang is the friend's tutor.

On 30 Aug the two teenagers had accompanied Mr Ang to his flat, where the boy was supposed to have his tuition session.

Jane's mother said: 'He invited them to his home, saying he'd made some sweet potato dessert.

'They spent time chatting and he told my daughter about his personal life.' Nothing was amiss as far as she could remember.

Jane met Mr Ang again the next day at the neighbourhood mall.

While chatting, she mentioned she wanted a chalet for her birthday the following week.

Mr Ang then offered to help her book one - as long as her parents paid for it.

But when Jane went home and told her parents, they felt uncomfortable about it, and told her to turn him down.

That was when the tutor turned nasty, they claimed.

Said Jane's mother: 'He got angry and called my daughter to scold her for wasting his time.

'He claimed he had gone through so much trouble to book the chalet. He then told my girl that she should be sent to a girls' home.'

Jane's mother became angry and upset when she heard that.

She and her husband called Mr Ang and they argued.

They decided to make a police report, and did so on 1 Sep.

Mr Ang also made a police report, three hours later, claiming the girl had solicited him for sex when she was at his flat on 30 Aug.

He also alleged that Jane's father had claimed to be a secret society member and had threatened him over the phone.

When the family found out about Mr Ang's allegations, they made a second police report, on 15 Sep.

The police confirmed both the family's and the man's reports.

Jane's mother said they were considering applying for a restraining order against Mr Ang.

She said: 'He knows which block we're living in as he has brought my daughter home before.

'We're worried over her safety. We can't be with her 24 hours.

'We just don't know what his motive is.'

She has already applied for a new handphone number for her daughter, who now has to call her each day before she leaves school for home.

'That's about all we can do right now, aside from praying that nothing happens,' said Jane's mother.

She blamed her daughter's sociable and chatty nature for the incident.

Jane's mother added: 'I've spoken to the school and my daughter's form teacher. Thankfully, they believe my daughter and us.

'Now, we just want to put this behind us and help my girl move on.'

Accusation 2: 'Students smoking cigarettes and passing a packet of suspicious-looking white powder.'

The same week, on 4 Sep, Mr Ang called the police. He accused a group of six students from the same school of suspected drug possession.

He claimed they were smoking cigarettes and were passing around a packet of 'suspicious looking' white powder at a neighbourhood shopping mall.

Mr Ang also called the school and spoke to the vice-principal.

When the police arrived at the scene, they found 'no incriminating items' on the group of students, a police spokesman said.

The school vice-principal found the whole encounter strange.

He told The New Paper on Sunday that Mr Ang had claimed to be an officer from the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) when he first contacted the school on 4 Sep.

Said the VP: 'He called the school in the morning and spoke to me. He told me he's an officer from MHA... and he saw some of our students smoking (outside a coffee outlet at a shopping mall), and one or two of them passing a packet of white powder.

'On hearing that, and that he was from MHA, I was very concerned and went to the location immediately.'

When he reached the mall and called Mr Ang, the VP said the man refused to show himself.

'Over the phone, he kept telling me I should not approach him directly, as he did not want his identity to be exposed. I found it a bit weird, but I respected it, so didn't approach him.'

The police arrived, searched and questioned the students, but found nothing.

QUESTIONED OTHER PATRONS

At the coffee outlet, the VP said he also questioned other patrons, who told him that while the students were there, they had not been smoking or acting suspiciously.

He then brought the six Secondary4 students back to school and questioned them thoroughly.

'I asked them to write their own statements. We also smelt their fingers, and there was no trace at all that they were smoking.'

The school's records showed these were not troublesome students.

Puzzled, the school called Mr Ang and invited him to the school that same afternoon to verify what he saw.

Said the VP: 'When he came in, I remember very vividly his first statement was, 'I come in right now as a member of the public'.'

The VP, who was accompanied by the principal, said he became more suspicious at once.

Mr Ang then told them about the alleged sexual offer by the 13-year-old student, a revelation which stunned both the principal and the VP.

The three of them spoke for about an hour, during which Mr Ang told them about his tuition agency, and even offered to help the school counsel unmotivated students.

At the end of the conversation, the VP said he again asked Mr Ang about his claim that he was an MHA officer.

'He responded by saying that when he stepped into the office, he'd already clarified he was meeting us in his capacity as a member of the public. That was very fishy,' said the VP.

'But the conversation ended on quite a good tone, and we thanked him for his feedback and concern for our students.'

The school then called the girl's parents, who were shocked and upset.

The VP said he did not hear from Mr Ang again until three weeks later.

That was when Mr Ang sent him an SMS before 7am, saying he would be forwarding the police report against the girl and her family to the media and other parties.

The school has since reported the case to the Ministry of Education.

It has also provided support and counselling to the seven students involved, especially Jane.

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