Former preschool cook who regularly molested 3 toddlers during naptime gets over 9 years' jail

SINGAPORE: A former preschool cook who regularly molested three toddlers during naptime was sentenced to more than nine years' jail on Monday (Nov 10).

Teo Guan Huat, a 61-year-old Malaysian and Singapore permanent resident, had pleaded guilty last month to three counts of molestation of minors. Another five charges were taken into consideration for sentencing.

In total, he was given a jail sentence of nine years, four months and seven weeks. This includes nine months' jail in lieu of caning, as Teo is above 50 and cannot be caned.

District Judge Vince Gui said Teo's actions "are abhorrent and represent a gross abuse of trust".

"He deliberately targeted three defenceless and helpless children," said the judge, adding that Teo exploited the trust the parents had placed in the preschool.

He noted the sustained contact, the fact that Teo molested the first victim at least nine times in about 25 minutes, and the abuse of Teo's position.

The victims were extremely young and vulnerable and were in no position to resist the sexual assault, not to mention report them, said Judge Gui.

The name of the preschool cannot be published due to a gag order protecting the identities of the victims, who were between one and two years old at the time of the offences.

The court heard that Teo was hired as a cook, but also escorted the children to another teacher for showers. He helped care for them at naptime by laying out mattresses in the nap room and patting them to sleep.

He was not supposed to interact with the children directly outside of his scope of duties as a cook.

An employee not named in court papers discovered the offences inadvertently in November 2023 when reviewing closed-circuit television footage for an unrelated issue.

Teo was seen inserting his hand under the diaper of a two-year-old girl.

Members of the school's management committee later confronted him and asked him to leave. He resigned on Nov 23, 2023, but the matter was reported to the police only in early December 2023, after the school's CCTV system was reformatted, erasing prior footage.

Three women have been charged over this. The police recovered the deleted footage, which captured a few of the incidents.

Teo was arrested on Dec 4, 2023, and he admitted to molesting three girls whom he knew by name.

He said he had erectile dysfunction and committed the offences as he was single and had never had relations with a female. Teo was later diagnosed with paedophilic disorder.

The Early Childhood Development Agency (ECDA) fined the preschool S$26,200, restricted new enrolments and shortened its licence tenure from 36 months to six months.

ECDA also took action against four members of the preschool's management, and had barred three of them from working in the preschool sector since April 2024.

All four staff members have been removed from their posts by the preschool's operator, the authority said.

The prosecution had sought 10 years' jail for Teo, saying the victims were extremely vulnerable and that this was one of the most horrendous acts of sexual abuse committed in a preschool.

Defence lawyer Revi Shanker sought six years' jail, saying his client was remorseful but questioned why the school allowed him to care for the children.

For each count of molesting a minor, Teo could have been jailed for up to five years and fined. He cannot be caned as he is above 50.

The parents of one of the victims attended court again during the sentencing hearing. When asked by CNA for their views on the sentence or police investigations, they declined to comment.