Former SAF regular jailed for raping daughter, claimed he did not want her to seek out 'other boys'

SINGAPORE: A man started sexually touching his daughter when she was 10 years old, escalating the abuse until he raped her at least once a month from 2017 to June 2018.

The abuse the girl endured between the ages of 10 and 14 only ended when her mother walked in on one of the assaults in June 2018.

The man, now 41, was sentenced on Monday (Apr 4) to 24 years' jail and the maximum 24 strokes of the cane, which was the sentence sought by the prosecution.

He was a Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) regular at the time of the offences. His name was redacted in court documents, and there is a gag order protecting the identity of the victim.

The man pleaded guilty to three counts of rape and aggravated rape. Another five charges of sexual offences against his daughter were considered for sentencing.

During the investigations, the offender said that he did not want his daughter to seek sexual intimacy with "other boys" who might "trash her", and claimed it would be "safer" to be intimate with him as he knew "how to use protection", the court heard.

GAVE HER BIRTH CONTROL PILL

The offender lived together with his wife, the victim and the victim's younger sister. The abuse took place in the offender's in-laws' home, his parents' home and the family home.

He started touching the victim sexually in 2014 or 2015, when she was in Primary 4 or Primary 5, the court heard. This happened when he went into her room to pat her to sleep.

The sexual assaults escalated to rape in December 2016. The court heard that the victim was scared of her father, and did not struggle or resist.

During one such assault between January 2017 and March 2017, when the victim was 12 to 13, the offender was worried that the condom he was wearing had broken during the rape. 

The next day, after picking up his daughter from school, he gave her a "morning after" pill - a birth control pill - which she took.

DISCOVERY OF OFFENCES

The abuse came to light on Jun 24, 2018, when the girl's mother walked into a room in the family home and saw the abuse.

The woman shouted at her husband, demanding to know what he was doing to their daughter. She forced her husband out of the room and asked her daughter what had happened, but the girl was crying and was unable to answer.

Although the victim's mother intended to report the offences, her daughter told her not to do so as she did not want anything to happen to her father. The victim's mother eventually found out that her husband had previously had sex with their daughter.

She did not report the offences as she was concerned about the victim and her younger sister, the court heard. The offender had also begged his wife for forgiveness.

The victim eventually reported the offences on Jul 31, 2019.

IMPACT ON THE VICTIM

After reporting the abuse, the victim received social service intervention from the Ministry of Social and Family Development. She was brought to stay at a home for girls, and eventually reintegrated with her mother and younger sister.

During her stay at the girls' home, she was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder. A psychologist found that the victim's exposure to sexual grooming and abuse by her father had likely led to confusion about healthy sexual boundaries.

In October 2019, the victim said she felt sad and fearful as a result of her father's actions, and suffered from insomnia, panic attacks, nightmares and recurrent thoughts of the abuse.

A psychiatrist noted that the victim was reminded of the assaults when she went to places she had visited with her father, and when she saw people who resembled him, things he bought for her and the same model of car that he drove.

The girl also had difficulty concentrating in class, had suicidal thoughts and harmed herself. She continued to experience flashbacks of the offences when she is alone at home, according to a victim impact statement taken in January.

She is afraid to hear keys jingling or the main door opening and closing, as these used to signal her father's return home. 

"ABHORRENT BETRAYAL"

Deputy Public Prosecutor Christopher Ong said that the offender had "robbed his own daughter of her innocence".

"There can really be no more abhorrent betrayal of blood and parental duty than what the accused has done to his own flesh and blood," said Mr Ong.

"In the home, where the victim should have been safe, her protector turned out to be her predator."

The prosecution highlighted the offender's egregious abuse of trust, his rape of a young and vulnerable victim, his premeditation and the psychological harm to the victim.

The offender was represented by Mr Josephus Tan and Mr Cory Wong of Invictus Law, who argued for not more than 18 to 20 years' jail and 24 strokes of the cane.

They highlighted that the offender decided to plead guilty early, before the charges against him were finalised. He also cooperated with the authorities as soon as investigations started.

The offender was "truthful and measured" in the way he had instructed his lawyers to mitigate, said the defence.

"Just because (he) has been charged with sexual offending, it does not necessarily mean that he is also an individual devoid of integrity or is beyond redemption," they said.

In sentencing, Justice Ang Cheng Hock said the offender's acts were "utterly abhorrent" and a "perverse breach" of the trust that should exist between father and daughter.

He said the court had to send a strong message that the man's actions cannot be condoned and that he should be punished severely.

The penalty for aggravated rape is between eight years and 20 years' jail and at least 12 strokes of the cane. The punishment for rape is a jail term of up to 20 years' jail and a fine or caning.