Grandfather jailed for repeatedly molesting family friend's 11-year-old daughter

SINGAPORE — Out of friendship, a mother frequently watched over her neighbour’s daughter along with her own children.

However, when she was busy, her father took over caring for the children. He used these occasions to molest the 11-year-old girl several times, growing bolder each time.

On Friday (March 27), the man — now aged 69 — was sentenced to three years and three months behind bars. District Judge Christopher Goh imposed an extra 12 weeks’ jail in lieu of six strokes of the cane, as offenders above 50 years old cannot be caned by law.

The man cannot be named due to a court order to protect the victim’s identity. He worked as an Uber driver at the time of the offences. 

He had pleaded guilty to three counts of molesting a minor under 14, with another four similar charges considered for sentencing.

Court documents showed that he committed an unrelated offence in 2011 while driving. He had exposed his penis to a woman sitting in the front passenger seat, but no other details were given.

TOUCHED THE GIRL ‘OUT OF LUST’

The court heard that he violated the girl, who was in Primary 5 at the time, over nine months in 2016. 

In 2010, her family moved into a flat in the same Housing and Development Board block as the man’s family. The girl’s mother and the man’s daughter soon became friends, with the latter often helping the other woman to pick the girl up from school and watch over her, with her own children.

As the oldest in the group of children, the girl also helped to look after the others and she grew close to the man’s family over time.

The man would occasionally pick the children up from school and watch over them if his daughter could not do so. 

He began molesting the girl in March 2016 by touching her thigh, waist and buttocks. They were sitting in his living room and she escaped to the kitchen toilet to give his two-year-old granddaughter a bath.

He followed her into the toilet, before making her sit on his lap and touching her inappropriately for a few minutes.

Over the next several months, he progressed to kissing her lips and touching her private parts while she was in the shower.

On one occasion, the girl was washing dishes in the kitchen after they had a meal, when he hugged her from behind, touched her private parts and pressed his crotch against her.

Shortly after, she took his granddaughter into the kitchen toilet for a bath. When she decided to also take a bath herself, he went in naked, made her sit on his lap and violated her.

In July 2017, she was taken in by the Ministry of Social and Family Development’s Child Protective Services, as both her parents were imprisoned and there were no other family members who could look after her.

During her interviews with a social worker, she eventually told the authorities what the man had done to her. 

The social worker took her to Geylang Neighbourhood Police Centre on Sept 8 in 2017 to file a police report.

During investigations, the man admitted that he touched the girl “out of lust and as he felt the temptation to touch her, especially while soaping her in the shower”, Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Sruthi Boppana told the court.

A FORMER GRASSROOTS LEADER WITH ‘CLEAN RECORD’

DPP Sruthi sought at least 40 months’ jail, as well as 18 more weeks’ jail in lieu of nine strokes of the cane. The prosecutor said that the man had abused his position of trust and committed his offences in a “deliberate and careful” manner.

The man’s lawyers — Associate Professor Ferlin Jayatissa and Mr Lum Guo Rong — said in mitigation that he was “deeply sorry”, had a clean record before this and was previously a grassroots leader.

For each charge of molesting a minor, he could have been jailed up to five years, fined, caned, or any combination of the three.