Landlord who sexually violated male tenant sentenced to 6 years’ jail, 3 strokes of the cane
Waduge Buddhika Upashantha Fernando, a father of three, seen arriving in the State Courts on Thursday (Aug 23). He admitted to performing a sex act on a male tenant without his consent.
SINGAPORE — A father of three young children who snuck into his tenant's room in the middle of the night to perform oral sex on him was on Thursday (Aug 23) sentenced to six years of jail and three strokes of the cane.
Calling Waduge Buddhika Upashantha Fernando's act "abhorrent", District Judge Kessler Soh told the Singaporean: "You must never commit such an offence again."
The 38-year-old former project engineer had earlier pleaded guilty to the offence of non-consensual sexual penetration.
The court heard that the tenant is a Malaysian, who works as a cook here. He started renting a room in Fernando's flat in Toa Payoh only four months prior to the offence, and had little interaction with Fernando and his family before that.
On Nov 10 last year, the man, who cannot be named due to a court gag order, woke up at 3am to find someone kneeling between his legs.
The shorts he wore to bed had been taken off, and the figure — whom he realised was the landlord — was performing oral sex on him.
He yelled and kicked at Fernando, who fled the flat immediately after being discovered.
After taking an hour to come to terms with the crime committed on him, the victim called the police at 4am.
Fernando's lawyer, Mr Amolat Singh, sought a five year jail term for his client, noting that he merely succumbed to a moment of weakness.
But Deputy Public Prosecutor Marshall Lim said it would be inaccurate to say it was a moment of weakness as the victim's bedroom door was closed, so Fernando would not have been tempted by the sight of the victim sleeping with his legs spread apart.
"The accused is fully aware of his own homosexual tendencies, a point he himself admits, and he entered the room already intent on engaging in homosexual activity with the victim," he said, seeking a sentence of six years in jail and three strokes of the cane.
"The sentence meted out to him has to be of sufficient severity to forever warn him that he cannot satisfy his sexual desires by violating the sexual privacy of another."
DPP Lim also noted that Fernando's "highly intrusive" acts on the man who was asleep and incapable of resisting lasted for about 10 minutes before he woke up. The sentence "must reflect the court's disapproval of the accused's conduct", he said.
Fernando could have been jailed for up to 20 years for the offence.
