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Singapore

Man repeatedly molested 9-year-old daughter while wife was overseas, gets jail and caning

Man repeatedly molested 9-year-old daughter while wife was overseas, gets jail and caning

Photo illustration of a child in distress. (Photo: Jeremy Long/CNA)

SINGAPORE: A 44-year-old man repeatedly molested his daughter while his wife was overseas, with his wife writing a letter to the court to plead for leniency when he was hauled up for his crimes.

For using criminal force to outrage his nine-year-old daughter's modesty, the man was sentenced to 21 months' jail and three strokes of the cane on Monday (Dec 16).

All parties cannot be named due to gag orders protecting their identities.

The court heard that the family of three lived together in a home where the incidents occurred.

On the first occasion, before May 2018, the man fetched his daughter home from her nanny's place and went out drinking.

When he returned home, he went to the girl's room to retrieve clothes from a shared wardrobe.

He noticed the girl asleep on her side on the bed, and he lay down and hugged her, said Deputy Public Prosecutor Chong Yong.

Feeling sexually aroused, he then rubbed himself against his daughter to satisfy his urges.

This occurred on at least another two occasions between May and September 2018, when his wife was overseas each time, and while he was intoxicated.

On each occasion, the girl was woken up by her father's actions, and she peeked at him and realised it was her father.

FEARING PARENTS WOULD QUARREL, GIRL AFRAID TO TELL MOTHER

She kept quiet as she felt scared, and was afraid to tell her mother about the incidents as she was afraid it would cause her parents to quarrel, the court heard.

In August 2018, the girl was walking home with her mother when she told her that some boys at her school had joked about male and female private parts coming into contact with one another.

She told her mother that this was "something like daddy did to me". She said her father had rubbed himself against her over her clothes on a number of occasions, inside her room.

A month later, the girl's mother sought help from the Association of Women for Action and Research (AWARE) over her marriage issues, and revealed that her daughter had been molested by her husband.

AWARE informed officers from the Ministry of Social and Family Development about this, and the ministry lodged a police report.

The man admitted to his actions on Monday, and the prosecutor asked for at least 23 months' jail and three strokes of the cane.

HIGHLY INTRUSIVE ACTS: PROSECUTOR

He said the degree of sexual exploitation was high, describing the acts as "highly intrusive" and for a sustained period.

The man had also abused his position of trust as the girl's father, and was the only adult in the household at the time as his wife was away.

"The victim was highly vulnerable," said the prosecutor. "She was only nine years old and materially younger than the stipulated age ceiling of 14. The offences all took place inside the victim's own room and in her own bed."

He said the man struck only after the girl had gone to sleep, and when there were no other adults at home she could turn to.

Defence lawyer T M Sinnadurai asked for a lenient sentence, saying his client admits that his actions were due to a lapse in judgment, and that "this is a scar that will remain with him for the rest of his life".

He said his client, who is an administrative assistant and a part-time home tutor in primary school subjects, suffers from heart disease and is on long-term medication.

He has also visited the National Addictions Management Services for his alcohol use.

WIFE WRITES LETTER TO COURT, SAYS DAUGHTER MISSES HUSBAND

The lawyer tendered a letter from the man's wife, in which she said her husband of 12 years treats his daughter "quite well".

"All this while, he has been hardworking and took care of us when I had no job," she wrote. "He tries to fulfil whatever we want (until he declared bankruptcy)."

"Even my daughter still misses him even though she has separated from him," wrote the 39-year-old woman. "This is not his true character."

She pleaded for leniency and said her husband has learnt his lesson, and that they were working "very hard to make our marriage work and be responsible parents for our daughter".

"All I can say is that my husband is a good man and I believe he will remain a good person till the end," she wrote.

For outraging the modesty of a minor under 14, the man could have been jailed for up to five years, fined, caned, or given any combination of these punishments.

Source: CNA/ll(hm)

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