| |
| |
 |
| |
|
| |
|
| |
|
SINGAPORE : A former primary school teacher who had sex with her student has been sentenced to 10 months' jail.
She is the first woman to feel the weight of stricter laws passed last year to protect minors from sexual offences. Her name has been withheld in order to protect the identity of the boy.
Their relationship began innocently - with phone calls and text messages after an overseas school trip to China which she had led. Then came meetings - where they window-shopped, watched movies and had meals together.
But the relationship took what Judge Sarjit Singh called an "inappropriate turn".
In March last year, the two had sex for the first time at a chalet in Pasir Ris, when the boy was 15. They had sex five more times after that.
The matter only came to light after the woman, 32, tried to break it off, but the boy refused and threatened to harm her family. She ended up going to the police.
In passing sentence, the judge said the case involved a "serious breach of trust".
He said that "teachers command a position of authority and respect in… society" and "parents should not have to worry about the safety of their children in school".
He made it clear that when such trust is broken, the courts must send a clear message - whatever the gender - and that the "punishment will be significant whatever the gender of the victim or the offender".
Only two people have been sentenced so far under stricter new laws on sexual offences passed last year to protect minors. Both are men and they had been sentenced to 16 and 15 months' jail each for similar offences.
The judge also pointed out the vast discrepancy in age and maturity between the former teacher and student.
He added that the "total lack of insight when she should have been aware of the consequences of her action" ... caused "tremendous harm to the victim" who "felt betrayed", according to the psychiatrist who examined him.
The petite bespectacled woman, who is married with two young children and who had been described by her psychiatrist as someone with chronic low esteem and poor self-worth, stood quietly throughout the sentencing, breaking down when she was led away by police officers to start her jail term. - CNA /ls
|
