Elderly man jailed 8 years for sex with 13-year-old boy at public pavilion
SINGAPORE — An elderly man who had sex with his childhood friend's then 13-year-old nephew at a public pavilion was sentenced to eight years in jail on Friday (Aug 24).
The man pleaded guilty to two counts of sexual penetration of a minor and one count of committing an obscene act with a young person.
Hours before they had sex on March 21, 2016, Zailany Mohamed, a 64-year-old logistics contractor, molested the boy under the table at a coffee shop located at Block 516 West Coast Road.
The boy's uncle who was present was unaware of the incident. The uncle later left to watch football after consuming a few glasses of beer.
Zailany – who was tasked to bring the boy home when the drinking session was over – started talking to the victim whom he had known for about a year about sex, after another friend seated with them had left at about 11pm.
Sitting him down at a pavilion located in front of Block 714 Clementi West Street 2 shortly after midnight, Zailany – a divorcee of 10 years with no children – then asked if he could touch the victim's private parts.
The victim, who has a borderline IQ of 70 and cannot be named due to a gag order, consented.
Zailany then proceeded to perform sex acts on him.
Two members of the public spotted them and contacted their friend, 23-year-old Nur Hafizan Putra Hadinan, who is an off-duty full-time national serviceman with the Singapore Police Force.
Hafizan met up with his two friends – Muhd Zulfadhli Zulkafli and Muhd Azizi Razzali, both 20. They proceeded to the second storey of the block to take a clearer look, after which Hafizan called the police.
When the police arrived, they noticed the victim hurriedly pulling down his T-shirt to cover his shorts, which was later found to be unzipped and unbuttoned at the top.
Both were questioned and brought to Clementi Police Division for further investigations.
The court on Friday heard that the victim's mother had passed away. He lives with his uncle, aunt and grandmother.
In seeking just a six-month jail term for Zailany, lawyer Periowsamy Otharam argued that his client is homeless. The lawyer highlighted that Zailany has a mailing address belonging to his brother who is married with four children, and had consumed alcohol prior to his offence.
For sexually penetrating a person under 14 years of age, Zailany could have been jailed for up to 20 years.
