SINGAPORE: The last of seven men in a case where husbands had their wives drugged and raped was sentenced to 13 years’ jail and 12 strokes of the cane on Tuesday (Jan 30).
The 45-year-old finance executive, O, had been invited by J to rape J’s unconscious wife in March 2011 on their third wedding anniversary.
J, the central figure in the case, had fed his wife sedatives and invited five men over to rape her on separate occasions between 2010 and 2018.
In sentencing O, who is married with two children, Justice Mavis Chionh rejected the defence’s attempt to cast him as a “hapless follower” who somehow got caught up in J’s machinations.
The judge concluded that O’s overall behaviour indicated that he lacked genuine remorse, pointing to how he had continued to engage in discussions with J about raping the victim after the offence.
She added that she gave little weight to his work as a grassroots volunteer and a volunteer with a food charity.
After the sentence was handed down, his lawyer, Chua Eng Hui, said he would be appealing against O’s conviction and sentence.
Bail was increased to S$120,000 pending the hearing of his appeal.
The four other men who raped J’s wife have been sentenced to between 13½ and 22 years in prison. Three of them were each sentenced to 20 strokes of the cane.
One of these men also invited a seventh man to rape his wife, but the attempt was unsuccessful. The seventh man was jailed for three years.
O was the only one of the seven men to contest the charge he faced instead of pleading guilty.
During his trial, J testified that he had invited O over to rape his wife in March 2011 on their third wedding anniversary.
J testified that he and his wife had wine to celebrate the occasion, and he spiked her drink with sleeping pills.
He said that when he saw O having sex with his unconscious and blindfolded wife, he felt anger, a thrill, and then guilt.
But O denied there was an agreement between him and J for him to rape J’s wife. He also denied raping the victim.
He contended that the reason J had asked him over was to confront him for having an affair with J’s wife. She and O had consensual sex in September 2010, after J gave him her contact details.
O claimed he had “freaked out” inside the flat, and when he was asked by J whether he wanted to touch the victim, he pretended to touch himself sexually in an attempt to get out of the situation.
He said he then chatted with J for a while before leaving the flat.
These claims were rejected by Justice Chionh, who convicted O in November 2023.
She said O’s account was inconsistent, illogical and implausible, and defied common sense.
The judge said it made no sense for J to make his wife unconscious if he wanted to confront her and O for having an affair.
She noted that O made no attempt to check on the woman after he saw her lying motionless on the bed, despite his claim that he had gone to the flat out of concern for the victim.
Justice Chionh said O’s assertion that J was angry with him was irreconcilable with the fact that in the years following the incident, both men continued to interact with each other to talk about their sexual fantasies.
She said the prosecution had proved the two men were engaged in a conspiracy.
J was sentenced to 29 years in jail and 24 strokes of the cane in May 2023.
On Jan 17, 2024, he failed in his appeal for a lighter punishment, with Chief Justice Sundaresh Menon remarking that the sentencing judge had been “lenient”. - The Straits Times/ANN
