Convicted child rapist pleads guilty to sexually abusing stepdaughter and her best friend
On Thursday (March 12) in the High Court, the 58-year-old man pleaded guilty to three charges of molestation and aggravated sexual assault by penetration. He cannot be named due to a court gag order to protect the victims’ identities.
SINGAPORE — Shortly after his release from jail for raping his 11-year-old niece, a factory worker began repeatedly molesting his stepdaughter.
Her mother was aware of his criminal past but believed he had turned over a new leaf. He eventually sexually assaulted the underage girl, before turning his attention to her best friend.
On Thursday (March 12) in the High Court, the 58-year-old man pleaded guilty to three charges of molestation and aggravated sexual assault by penetration. He cannot be named due to a court gag order to protect the victims’ identities.
Twelve other similar charges will be taken into consideration for sentencing. However, those above the age of 50 cannot be caned by law.
Justice Aedit Abdullah called for a report to assess if he is suitable for preventive detention — a severe punishment that is only imposed when the court is satisfied that a recalcitrant offender should be locked away so as to protect the public from him.
Such offenders can be jailed between seven to 20 years. The prosecution is pushing for the maximum length for the man, should he be found suitable for preventive detention.
Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Goh Yiling revealed that he was imprisoned for 24 years and given 24 strokes of the cane in 2001, after being convicted of three counts of statutory rape against his niece.
He was released at the end of 2016 and committed his new offences over the span of a year in 2018.
The prosecutor added: “He must be removed from society for a substantial period of time. He is recalcitrant… His complete inability to control his sexual urges underscores the immediate need to take him out of circulation from society.”
ACCUSED AND STEPDAUGHTER WERE CLOSE
The court heard that the man married the girl’s mother in January 2017. The girl initially stayed with her biological father before moving in with her mother and stepfather.
The man and his stepdaughter were close and shared a “good relationship”, with both mother and daughter trusting him.
When she was around 12 to 13 years old, he began touching her inappropriately in their home. This usually happened when her mother was home — he seized the chance when she was not looking or busy with someone else.
He started by resting his palm against the girl’s chest over her clothes, before growing bolder and touching her private parts.
Once, they were watching a movie on the sofa in the living room while the girl’s mother was in the bedroom. When the man touched her, she did not say anything as she was in shock.
In September 2018, he decided to touch her under her underwear. This was the first time she was “introduced to sexual touching”, DPP Goh said.
He continued sexually abusing the girl after they moved to their new home in Woodlands two months later. In December 2018, he assaulted her with his finger on two occasions when she was sleeping.
She did not tell her mother about the abuse as she wanted her to be “happy” and feared that coming clean would upset her.
BEST FRIEND CALLED HIM ‘PAPA’
Throughout that same year, the girl’s best friend and ex-schoolmate often visited her and called the accused “Papa”.
He molested her on two occasions.
On one occasion, he took her on a ride on his electric scooter to Lorong 8 Toa Payoh where he slipped his hand under her shirt to touch her.
She managed to escape and did not go back to her friend’s house for a while as she wanted to avoid him.
His offences came to light in January last year, after his wife thought that her daughter was dating someone.
When she told the girl that she would take her to the hospital to “check her virginity”, the girl became afraid and confided in their neighbour, who spoke to the mother.
The girl went back to live with her biological father, who discovered WhatsApp messages between the girl and her best friend about the sexual abuse. The father then lodged a police report.
After the stepfather was arrested, he told a forensic psychiatrist from the Institute of Mental Health that he had only touched his stepdaughter in December 2018 after she “seduced him by taking off her shirt and exposing her breasts”.
In his report, the psychiatrist said that he had a “high risk of reoffending if the opportunity (access to a victim, suitable location) presents itself, due to his past history of similar offences”.
