7.5 years’ jail for man who sexually exploited step-siblings
Reuters file photo
SINGAPORE – A 25-year-old man who sexually assaulted his younger step-brother and committed indecent acts with the boy and his younger step-sister was on Monday (June 6) sentenced to seven-and-a-half-years’ jail.
The man was earlier convicted of sexually assaulting his then 10-year-step-brother at a multi-storey carpark at Havelock Road in 2012, as well as committing indecent acts with the step-brother and younger step-sister, then eight years old, in their home.
The man’s offences only came to light after the victims’ father found out that the younger stepbrother had made his sister perform a sexual act on him in the middle of 2013. Upon probing, the boy revealed that he had “learnt how to do it” after both the accused and the father’s friend made the boy perform such acts on them.
The father’s 53-year-old friend has already been convicted and sentenced to six years’ jail for sexually assaulting the boy.
The court heard that sometime in 2012, the accused brought the boy, then a Primary Four student, to the staircase landing of a multi-storey carpark in Havelock Road where he got the boy to perform oral sex on him.
The boy kept the matter to himself as the accused had told him not to tell anyone about it or there would be a “big problem” in the family.
At their home on June 20, 2013, the accused went up to the boy, covered his mouth and brought him into a room. He then made the boy lie on the floor, performed an obscene act before placing the boy’s feet on his private part and made him rub it.
He also committed the similar indecent act that same month with his stepsister. He had asked her to go inside the room, lie on the floor before closing her eyes with his hands. He then removed his boxers and made her perform a similar indecent act.
In meting out the sentence, district judge Shaiffudin Saruwan said he took into account the vulnerability and the degree of sexual exploitation of both victims.
Both victims had been very young, making them “extremely vulnerable and defenceless”, he said. In particular, the young boy had low average intelligence and “was a victim of an earlier episode of a similar sexual assault at the hands of a stranger”.
Not only was the sexual exploitation significant and persistent, the judge also noted that the accused had abused his position of trust as an elder brother.
“Because he was their elder sibling, the victims had complied with his instructions without question. The sexual exploitation went on for almost a year before it was discovered,” he added.
While he noted that the accused was presented with “unfortunate personal circumstances” – he has mild intellectual disability and an extremely low range of social functioning – the judge said there was no causal link between his disability and the offences.
