Man jailed for sexually assaulting 6-year-old niece after showing her porn

SINGAPORE: A man who had been watching porn sexually assaulted his niece in the living room of the home they shared in 2010. She was six to seven years old at the time, and he was 40 to 41.

The offences were only reported to police eight years later, when the girl spoke to a hospital counsellor after revealing that she had tried to harm herself.

The man, now 52, was jailed 14 years on Monday (Apr 18) after pleading guilty at the High Court to one charge of sexual penetration of a minor and one charge of taking methamphetamine.

He was sentenced to seven years' jail for each offence. Justice See Kee Oon ordered the jail terms to run consecutively.

Seven other charges were considered for sentencing. The accused and victim cannot be named as their identities are protected by gag order.

The court heard that the girl and the accused had lived in the same flat since 2008, together with her mother, older brother and grandmother. Her parents were divorced.

WHAT HAPPENED

Sometime in 2010, the accused was sitting on a sofa in the living room watching pornography. When he became aroused, he called the victim over and showed her a pornographic video.

The video showed two naked adults having sex. The young girl did not understand the sexual nature of the acts, but felt disgusted by the video.

After this, the accused told the victim to lie down on the sofa with her head in his lap. She did so as the accused was her uncle, court documents stated.

The accused then sexually assaulted her under her clothes without her consent, causing her to feel extreme pain.

The victim quickly sat up on the sofa after this, but did not dare to shout or call for help as she felt afraid. She did not tell anyone what had happened that day.

The next day, when the victim was sleeping on the sofa in the living room at night, her uncle climbed onto the sofa behind her.

The victim was startled and turned to see who was lying behind her. When she saw that it was the accused, she quickly turned away from him. 

However, the accused pulled her to face him and went on to molest her. The girl rolled off the sofa to get away from him, but he climbed off the sofa and followed her.

He then pulled his pants down, but his mobile phone made a sound at this point. He hurriedly pulled his pants up and walked away.

A few weeks later, the girl told someone that she had been touched inappropriately. The identity of this person was redacted from court documents.

The court heard that the victim later moved out from the flat at an unspecified time.

DISCOVERY OF OFFENCES

The offences were discovered when the victim went to KK Women's and Children's Hospital to seek treatment for abdominal pains in July 2018.

She was told to fill up a form, in which she disclosed that she was having suicidal thoughts and had tried to self-harm before. As a result of this, the girl was interviewed by a counsellor at the hospital.

The victim told the counsellor that her uncle had sexually assaulted her. She also told the counsellor that she would have flashbacks of the assault and feel scared whenever she visited the flat where it happened.

The hospital subsequently reported a case of sexual assault to the police on Jul 13, 2018.

The accused was arrested on Mar 5, 2019. Investigations subsequently revealed that he had also consumed methamphetamine the day before his arrest.

He had a prior conviction in 2001 for consuming morphine, and was hence liable for enhanced punishment this time.

YOUNG AND VULNERABLE VICTIM

Both the prosecution and defence asked for the mandatory minimum of seven years' jail for the drug offence. They differed on the sentence for the sexual assault offence.

Deputy Public Prosecutors Jane Lim and Samyata Ravindran sought seven to eight years' jail, highlighting that the victim was especially young and vulnerable and did not consent to the acts.

The accused also "shattered" the family's legitimate expectation that he would not harm his niece, and violated the sanctity of the home where she had a right to feel safe, said Ms Lim.

"He took advantage of his position as a trusted family member residing in the victim's home to gain easy access to her and exploited her to commit truly unthinkable and perverse acts," said the prosecutors.

"The victim has suffered immeasurable harm at the hands of the accused and will carry the horrible memories of the sexual abuse for the rest of her life."

They also urged the court to factor in that the accused showed the victim porn and molested her the night after the first assault, which were among the charges taken into consideration.

Defence lawyer Sadhana Rai argued for a shorter jail term of five to six years. She said that the accused did not groom the victim or assault her over a protracted period, and that it was a "singular" incident over two days.

Ms Rai also said that the accused did not reoffend again, even though he continued to have contact with the victim in the subsequent years whenever she visited the flat where he lived.

In response, the prosecution said that the accused could not take all the credit for his lack of reoffending as the victim had moved out, removing his easy access to her.

Delivering his sentence, Justice See said the offences were not one-off as the accused molested the victim again the very next day, and noted a clear abuse of trust.

"(The victim) was clearly young, immature and vulnerable. In addition, she would not have been in any position to give consent to the act and had plainly not agreed to being violated by the accused," said the judge.

The punishment for sexual penetration of a minor is up to 20 years' jail, a fine or caning. The accused cannot be caned as he is above 50, and the prosecution did not seek additional jail time in lieu.

For his drug consumption offence, the accused could have been jailed between seven and 13 years, and given between six and 12 strokes of the cane.