39-year-old crane operator found guilty of raping a 12-year-old girl
Reuters file photo
SINGAPORE — A crane operator was today (Jan 29) found guilty of raping a 12-year-old girl just days after he met her through a mobile phone messaging application, in a case the prosecution described as one that “embodies every parent’s nightmare”.
The prosecution urged the High Court to impose a sentence of at least 11 years’ jail and six strokes of the cane on Lee Seow Peng, 39, who was also found guilty of two charges of sexual grooming and an attempt to get the minor to perform an indecent act.
During the nine-day trial, the court heard that Lee — who is unrepresented — first met the victim through the mobile phone messaging app on 26 May, 2012. She cannot be named due to a court order to protect her identity.
He asked her to be his girlfriend a day later and arranged to meet her on 29 May, 2012. The victim had also told Lee she was 13 years old.
That evening, he picked the victim up in his Toyota multi-purpose vehicle (MPV) near her school. She was dressed in her school T-shirt and shorts.
He then drove her to an open carpark in Chinese Garden and had sexual intercourse with her at the rear seat of his vehicle.
They continued to communicate via phone messages after the incident before Lee tried to arrange another meeting with the girl on 3 June, 2012.
All these came to light when the victim’s mother discovered the messages from Lee in her daughter’s phone. The victim then revealed what had happened and a police report was made.
Delivering her oral judgement today, Judicial Commissioner Hoo Sheau Peng said she found Lee’s version of events “simply unbelievable”, where he claimed that he merely met the victim for a short walk and had only chatted in the car.
She also rejected his defence that he was mistaken about her age as she noted that the victim had not disguised her age and was also dressed in her school’s physical education attire when they met.
Ms Hoo convicted Lee of a reduced rape charge today. He was earlier charged for the sexual penetration of a woman under 14 years old “without her consent”.
She noted that “there is reasonable doubt” that the sexual intercourse took place “without consent” because following the incident, the victim continued to be in a “positive frame of mind” and was affectionate in their exchange of messages.
With the reduced charge, Lee faces no minimum mandatory punishment, even though the rape offence warrants him the same maximum penalties of up to 20 years in jail and made him liable to caning, she added.
Ms Hoo also found that Station Inspector Colin Ng’s investigations of the case were “unsatisfactory”, but no prejudice was caused to Lee. It was reported earlier that the investigators did not swab the backseat of the MPV – where the rape took place – for evidence. Instead, swabs were taken from the front passenger seat but were not sent for analysis.
In the prosecution’s submissions on sentencing, they cited aggravating factors such as how Lee was “neither put off nor deterred by the victim’s young and tender age”.
“Even though the accused was more than two decades older than the victim, he did not display the maturity our society would expect of an adult in protecting a vulnerable child,” they added.
The case will be mentioned on Feb 23 for Lee to seek a lawyer for his mitigation plea.
