Probation for 24-year-old man who molested close female friend after drinking at her home
After drinking with her male friend till 3am, a woman felt intoxicated and was later molested by the friend in bed.
- A full-time national serviceman molested a close female friend at her home in 2018
- He hugged her from behind and touched her in a sexual manner
- He will serve a 15-month split probation, with three months of intensive regime and 12 months of supervised regime
SINGAPORE — A 24-year-old man was sentenced to probation on Thursday (July 1) for molesting a close female friend in 2018.
The 23-year-old victim, who cannot be named due to a court order protecting her identity, had confided in him just two weeks before the incident that she had recently broken up with her boyfriend.
The man, who also cannot be named, was at the victim’s condominium apartment while her parents were overseas when he hugged her from behind and touched her in a sexual manner, including using her hand to rub his crotch.
These amounted to one charge of using criminal force with the intention to outrage the woman’s modesty.
He will serve a 15-month split probation, with three months of intensive regime and 12 months of supervised regime. It comes with the conditions to remain indoors from 11pm to 6am and perform 50 hours of community service.
His mother also has to pay a S$5,000 bond to ensure his good behaviour during the period of probation.
The court heard that the man and the woman used to study in the same institution and first knew each other during the first year of their studies in 2014. They remained as close friends after graduating in 2017.
On Feb 10 in 2018 at around 11pm, he went to her apartment where they talked about her recent breakup and watched a movie in the living room while drinking a hard liquor mixed with cola.
The woman decided to stop drinking at around 3am when she felt intoxicated and decided to go to bed after packing up the place.
She remembered telling him that he could either go back to his own home, sleep on the sofa in the living room, or sleep on a pull-out bed, which was tucked under her own bed, in her room.
She then went to her room, closed the door and laid down on her bed.
Shortly after, the man entered her room and laid down on the bed beside her, put his arm around her waist and started molesting her.
Between 3am and 9am, the woman did not fall asleep at any point, remaining conscious and aware of what the friend was doing to her, but she was unable to physically react as she was intoxicated and scared.
In the morning, they smoked and watched a stand-up comedy show together in the morning, but she did not confront him about what happened in bed because she was still trying to process what had happened. He left by noon that day.
It was months later that she sent him text messages to confront him about the molestation.
She made a police report against him on July 14 that year.
Dr Cheow Enquan, a psychiatrist from the Institute of Mental Health who had evaluated the victim, stated that she reported feeling quite traumatised by what happened and made two suicide attempts in 2018 following the incident.
The man could have been jailed for up to two years, fined, caned, or received any of the three penalties for molesting the woman.
