Local content creator Kiki Darling has apologised for staying silent about his past sexual assault conviction.
The 26-year-old, who quit his leading role in Jack Neo’s Ah Boys to Firefighters (ABTF) recently, addressed the saga from the past few days in an Instagram post today (Sept 10): “I promise to be transparent and I promise to be clear, and I promise no more hiding.”
Kiki admitted that he is Hari Kishen Balakrishnan, who underwent six months of reformative training after he was convicted in 2021 of sexually assaulting his drunk friend a year earlier.
“I want you guys to know that I take full responsibility and the harm that I caused the victim, there’s really nothing I can do to ever undo such pain,” he said.
Kiki shared that at Reformative Training Centre (RTC), he attended rehabilitation workshops and classes, as well as counselling with a psychologist.
“When I came out, I really knew that I needed to dedicate my life to move forward and to be a better person,” he said, adding that he decided to further his studies by taking his GCE O-Levels as a private candidate and continuing his education in Republic Polytechnic (RP).
‘Giving back to society’
While pursuing his culinary diploma in RP, Kiki said he found his “calling” in volunteering after working with less-privileged communities and migrant worker communities. He also became president of the student council and a youth advisory panelist for a government feedback unit.
He explained: “I wanted to pay back somehow for everything that I’ve done and it was through giving back to society.”
Later, he started creating comedy content as Kiki Darling and gained support from the community.
Kiki admitted that while he had been open about his past to people who had guided him in his life, he had not extended “the same opportunity and openness” to the online community.
He said: “Some of you are very sad, betrayed and angry, and I totally understand that and I’m really, really sorry. I wish I knew how to handle this better and I wish it did not have to come to this point, but it did.”
He added that when he realised he had no access to his records anymore after he applied for university, he felt that he did not need to tell anyone about his past anymore, not realising that people would still connect him to his previous conviction through the news article.
“As I became someone in the public eye, I realised that I needed to take more responsibility for my actions, be it the past, present or future, and I’m so sorry I didn’t extend this to all of you,” he said.
Kiki said he has been trying his best to give back to the community through various organisations in the last six years and develop himself through further education.
” I just wanted to show that I’m not the same person I was that time.”
He apologised to the person he had harmed previously, the people who believed in him and felt betrayed, and those who had been giving him opportunities.
Kiki ended his video with: “I’m not saying this because I’m trying to erase everything I did. I just wanted to come clean and tell you guys the truth and tell you guys that I really, really, really have been trying to build my life…
“I will now need to take the time to move forward with my life, to continue with my school, to continue my work, and I think I will continue doing community work because it is really not something I would take away from myself or from others.
“I hope you guys can understand that this is part of my learning. And I really want to believe that I have changed.”
What happened
Kiki’s video comes after content creator S Subhraaj posted an Instagram video on Sept 7 revealing his past conviction.
In response to AsiaOne’s queries, Jack’s J Team Productions, which is currently working on ABTF, said on Sept 9 that they were “very surprised” to hear about Kiki’s conviction as none of the production crew were aware and it was not declared.
They also shared that Kiki, who was initially cast as full-time national serviceman Ramesh Menon, had quit ABTF, and they are in the midst of recasting the role, planning reshoots and executing necessary edits for the film.
Ah Boys to Firefighters is slated for release during Chinese New Year in 2027.
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yeo.shuhui@asiaone.com
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