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Singapore-based TikToker Lev Panfilov reflects on spending three years in Changi Prison before being acquitted of rape charges in September, sharing his experiences in an Instagram post on Oct 2.
Lev Panfilov, a 30-year-old Singapore permanent resident from Russia, was acquitted of all four rape-related charges in September after spending three years in Changi Prison.
He shared his reflections in an Instagram post on Friday (Oct 2). The former Wah! Banana scriptwriter-actor and TikToker wrote: I have always loved movies. I just did not think I would spend five-and-a-half years guessing what genre mine had become.
From Creative Life to Charges
Lev said that at 24, he was acting, fencing, making comedy videos and preparing to move to New York to study acting on scholarship. He recounted: In the blink of an eye, it became a thriller. I went on a date and was accused of something I did not do. An investigation began.
Suddenly, the future I had been planning was put on hold. He was accused of raping a 30-year-old woman he had matched with on Tinder in 2021, after they met up to work on a script. In 2025, he was found guilty of two counts of rape, one count of sexual assault by penetration and one count of outrage of modesty. He was sentenced to 11 and a half years in jail and 12 strokes of the cane.
In September, the Court of Appeal acquitted him of all four charges after finding inconsistencies in the woman's evidence. The court also found that her evidence fell short of the unusually convincing standard required to overcome the lack of corroborative evidence. Lev, who is from Russia, shared in his post that when he was under investigation in 2023, his father was diagnosed with an aggressive brain tumour.
Acquittal and Travel Restrictions
He had tried to get permission twice to travel to Russia to see him but was denied. He wrote: I was only allowed to go after he had passed, to pay my respects. He told CNA in a report published on Oct 2 that he was in Russia for a month before returning to Singapore for the trial because he believed he is innocent.
Later in 2023, the court rejected him again when he appealed to go to Russia to see his 91-year-old grandfather, who also had a health condition and wanted to meet him. Lev said he attempted to slip out of Singapore using an undeclared second passport. He was stopped at the airport and remanded in jail as his trial continued. Life became grim for him.
He recalled spending 23 hours a day in a 7sqm cell with one hour in the yard. He had no bed and slept on a straw mat on the floor. Lev wrote: I lived alongside people serving a few years, 20 years, even life. A few floors below were people awaiting the death penalty.
Life Inside Changi Prison
For a long time, this became my world. He told CNA that he spent his time reading, finishing over 100 books during his time in jail. He also joined religious counselling sessions and became a Christian.
In addition, he enrolled in prison school to prepare for his GCE A-Levels, which he would still be sitting for in November. He wrote in his post: I found my why in books and faith, in friends and family, in a cappella songs in my cell and reciting comedy. And in my mother. While I fought from the inside, she fought for me outside.
I did not just learn how to survive. I learnt how to live. Lev also mentioned his present girlfriend, whom he started dating in 2021, for standing by him and visiting him frequently during his imprisonment. He ended his post with: Perhaps it is a feel-good movie after all.
As for what genre comes next? I do not know. But for the first time in a long time, I got to choose. He told CNA that when he was released that same evening after being acquitted, he did not know where his mother was staying in Singapore.
Rebuilding Life After Acquittal
He could only remember his girlfriend's address, which he went to after a security guard booked a ride for him. Lev felt out of place while re-entering society. He added that he struggled to cross the road in the beginning because everything was moving too fast. Writing that his faith in the Singapore judicial system has been restored, he said: It is a type of relief that is mixed with a lot of grief and a type of darkness.
His goal now is to recover his financial losses from the court case, which amounted to almost half a million dollars in legal fees. He also plans to set up recruitment firm Found Partners. He hopes to explore living elsewhere and eventually return to the creative industry, as well as marry his girlfriend.
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