Club bouncer admits raping woman after taking her to chalet, egged on by friends

SINGAPORE: Four men working at a club took advantage of a woman who was drunk, taking her to a chalet they had earlier booked despite initially intending to get her home in a cab.

At D'Resort @ Downtown East, two of the men egged on a third to rape the 24-year-old victim, saying: "The woman is already lying here and you still are not having sex with her. What are you waiting for?"

Yap Chun Chieh, a manager and bouncer at Club V5 Tycoon at the time, pleaded guilty on Monday (Feb 1) to one count of rape and another of outrage of modesty.

The court heard that Yap's friends and co-accused were staying in the chalet at 1 Pasir Close on Sep 16, 2018: Tay Boon Huat, 28, Yong Chun Hong, a 31-year-old bouncer at Club V5 and Gan Soon Chai, a cashier at the club.

They headed to the club in the wee hours the next morning, where Yap was working and where the victim had gone to drink alcohol with her friends. After a drunken dispute with another group of clubgoers at about 5.20am, her friends left.

She continued to drink alcohol with other people at the club, including Yong and Tay. At about 6am, Yong took the victim to the women's toilet and the men's toilet, where he spent 15 minutes with her behind closed doors.

At about 6.35am, Yong passed the victim to Yap, asking him to take her home by taxi. At this time, the victim was severely intoxicated and had trouble walking on her own, the court heard.

Yap walked with the victim to the taxi stand and asked a friend to help book a ride for her, but his friends soon turned up in a car. Yong persuaded Yap to join them at the chalet, before pulling the unconscious victim into the car.

On the way, Gan asked Yong why they had taken the victim along when she was so intoxicated, and Yong purportedly replied that they wanted to bring her to the chalet to "play" and eat.

Tay then molested the victim in the car, with Yap joining in. Before they arrived at the chalet, Yong told Yap: "You got free ****, why don't want?"

The group arrived at the chalet at about 7.30am and Yap placed the victim on the bed. Yong and Tay tried unsuccessfully to rouse her, then molested her. 

Both egged on Yap to have sex with the woman. Yap eventually did so, and Tay performed a sex act on her. 

Unbeknownst to the two men, Gan had quietly taken out his phone to film the assault. He stopped filming when Tay spotted him.

READ: Club cashier who filmed rape at Downtown East chalet gets jail, fine

Yap and Tay then took turns to take the victim to the toilet. After this, they gathered outside the chalet with Gan to smoke and chat, and tried to delete the video from his phone, but did not manage to.

At about 9am that day, Yap dressed the victim before helping her to a taxi and taking her home after checking her address on her NRIC. However, he could not wake her up when they reached her home, so he took her to a hotel in Geylang to sleep.

VICTIM WAKES UP

After waking up, Yap molested the victim again. She finally came to at about 7pm and was startled to wake up next to a stranger. She went to the bathroom and realised that her underwear was inside out and her panty lining had been dislodged.

She paid for the room before heading home where she threw away her underwear, feeling "very disgusted".

"The victim knew that something had happened to her, but she did not make a police report immediately as she felt very depressed and did not know what to do," said the prosecutors.

A few days later, the victim confronted Yap at the club and asked what happened. He said she was very drunk that night and that he and three of his colleagues had driven her to the chalet.

He admitted having sex with her there, but said he was sorry and had taken her to a hotel room to sleep, insisting that nothing happened there. He allowed the victim to check his phone for footage of her, but she could not find any.

After hearing what happened, the victim felt very stressed and told him to keep it to himself. She later confided in her mother about what happened and lodged a police report on her encouragement.

Yap, Tay, Yong and Gan were arrested and their mobile phones seized. Video footage of the sexual assault was found on Gan's phone.

Yap will be sentenced at a later date.

Tay was sentenced in August last year to 10 years and three months' jail and five strokes of the cane. Gan was given 15 months' jail and fined S$20,800 in 2019. Yong's case is pending.