Rape victim first claimed to be molested in van
By Ansley Ng, TODAY | Posted: 19 November 2009 2044 hrs

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SINGAPORE: The victim of an alleged gang rape had told her boyfriend and police officers attending to her that she had been put in a van by several men and molested.

But the 17-year-old student later revealed privately to a female police officer details about the alleged rape that took place on Boxing Day last year.

When officers first saw the girl, she had smudged make-up and puffy eyes, Station Inspector Kim Lai Kuan of Jurong Police Division told the court on Thursday. According to her, the girl also appeared to be in a daze and seemed moody.

Five young men, aged between 17 and 20, are in the dock for allegedly raping and sexually assaulting the girl in a flat in Woodlands between 4am and 6am on December 26 last year.

Hours after the alleged attack, her boyfriend called the police, saying his girlfriend "was molested by a group of Malay men in a van". She had confided in him in an online chat, but threatened to kill herself if he called the police, the court heard.

After Station Inspector Kim arrived at the flat with her two colleagues, Station Inspector Mohamed Azmi Chomil and Sergeant Mohammad Ridzuan Abdul Samad, they interviewed the girl in the living room.

The girl, now 18, repeated the story that she was molested in a van.

However, when pressed by Station Inspector Mohamed Azmi for a description of the van, she was not "forthcoming" and requested to speak to Station Inspector Kim in private.

In her bedroom, she recounted to Station Inspector Kim the ordeal of how she had too much to drink in a Woodlands apartment and was raped by five men – one of them was a friend of hers.

The case was later passed over to the Serious Sexual Crimes branch of the Criminal Investigation Department.

The court was not told why she had first claimed to be molested in a van. The girl is likely to testify behind closed doors next week.


- TODAY/so