71-year-old man jailed 5 weeks for insulting modesty of teenage stepdaughter
The judge who jailed a pest control technician for insulting his stepdaughter's modesty said that the man did not show remorse.
SINGAPORE — A 71-year-old man who told his then-13-year-old stepdaughter that her mother’s breasts were small and he wanted to commit an indecent act with her was jailed five weeks on Tuesday (Dec 8).
The pest control technician, who cannot be named due to a court order protecting the victim’s identity, was convicted of one count of insulting the girl’s modesty following a trial, during which he had accused the victim and her mother of conspiring to frame him.
The girl’s mother, a former hawker stall assistant who married the man in 2013, had divorced him in 2019.
He claimed that he was framed because the woman wanted to get a larger share of the proceeds from the sale of their matrimonial flat.
The prosecution argued during the trial that the man’s allegation of a conspiracy was “obviously inconsistent”, since neither the girl nor her mother took active steps to alert the authorities or make a police report against him.
The offence came to light because of police investigations into a separate incident related to a breach of a Personal Protection Order taken up by the victim’s mother against the accused.
The court heard over the course of the trial that the accused insulted the girl’s modesty at about 7pm to 8pm on June 21 in 2017 after she returned home from school and was alone with her stepfather.
She was using her mobile phone on her bed when he entered the room and told her in Malay that he had dreamt of her the night before and had an urge to engage in a sexual act with her.
He then told her that her mother’s breasts were small and that he was not satisfied.
The girl rejected his advances, but he continued to beg her.
He did not do anything in the end but she felt scared and was concerned that her stepfather would return to her room again and force her against her will.
She then wrote about the incident and posted it on her private Instagram account that same night.
During sentencing on Tuesday, District Judge Eddy Tham said that what the man said to his stepdaughter and the circumstances that they were in were offensive to the girl’s modesty and had a “traumatising effect” on the victim as evidenced by her Instagram post.
As her stepfather, he had abused the trust reposed in him by committing an offence on someone who was entrusted to him for protection and care.
Other than his clean criminal record before this offence, District Judge Tham said that there is not much more he could find in the stepfather’s favour to give him a shorter sentence, adding that he also did not show remorse by pleading guilty.
For insulting the girl’s modesty, the man could have been jailed up to one year or fined, or both.
