Man jailed, caned for molesting unconscious woman who was later raped at Downtown East chalet

SINGAPORE — The last of four men, who were prosecuted over the rape and sexual assault of a drunk and unconscious woman at a chalet in Singapore, was sentenced to eight months’ jail and two strokes of the cane on Monday (Feb 21).

Yong Chun Hong, 32, was found guilty of one charge of molesting the now 27-year-old woman by squeezing her breast over her clothes in 2018.

The victim cannot be named because of a court order to protect her identity.

The other three convicted men and their respective sentences are:

• Tay Boon Huat, 29. Sentenced to 10 years and three months' jail and five strokes of the cane in 2020. He had sexually assaulted the victim
• Yap Chun Chieh, 41. Jailed 12 years and three months, and given 10 strokes of the cane in 2021. He raped the victim
• Gan Soon Chai, 36. Jailed one year and three months, and fined S$20,800 in 2019. He filmed the rape

A fourth man, Yeo We Chiang, 43, was not prosecuted. He had driven the men, along with the victim, back to the D’Resort chalet at Downtown East, where the rape and sexual assault took place.

WHAT HAPPENED

The court heard that at the time of the incident in September 2018, Yong, Yap and Gan were employees of Club V5 Tycoon at Ming Arcade near the junction of Orchard Road and Cuscaden Road.

The professions of Tay and Yeo were not stated.

Tay had booked a room at D’Resort from Sept 17 to 18 that year for his friends in the group.

After midnight on Sept 17, all five men went to the nightclub to work or drink.

At some point that night, the victim’s friends got into a drunken dispute outside the club with another group and left when the dispute was resolved, leaving the woman behind.

It was not stated what her relationship was with the men. She then continued drinking at Club V5 with Tay, Yong and Yeo.

At about 6am, Yong took the victim to the female toilet, followed by the male toilet on the fourth floor of Ming Arcade, where he spent about 15 minutes alone with her behind closed doors.

Details of what happened during that period were not stated.

Yong then took her down to the ground floor of Ming Arcade about half an hour later and handed her over to Yap, telling him to take her home by taxi.

The woman was severely intoxicated at this point, and could not walk on her own, so Yap took her to the taxi stand located at Forum the Shopping Mall, where they waited for a private-hire vehicle.

At around 7am, after Club V5 had closed, Yong, Gan and Tay decided to return to the chalet and boarded Yeo’s car.

Yong told them that Yap and the victim were at the taxi stand, and Yeo swung by and they persuaded Yap to join them, but not before Yong pulled the woman into the car.

Court documents stated that Tay sat at the front of the car, while Yap sat in the middle of the rear seat while hugging the victim. Yong and Gan sat on either side of him.

While travelling to the chalet, Tay stretched his hand to the back and pulled down the victim’s top and he, together with Yap and Yong, began to molest the woman.

When they got to the chalet, Yap helped the unconscious victim onto one of two queen-sized beds in the room. Yeo fell asleep on the second bed, before Tay began to sexually assault the victim. She was later raped by Yap, and this was filmed secretly by Gan.

For using criminal force to outrage the modesty of his victim, Yong could have been jailed up to two years or fined or caned, or given a combination of any of these punishments.