- Illustrative photo.
SINGAPORE: He was her Primary 4 and 5 form teacher, and as the two grew closer after she confided in him about her family problems, he started calling her “baobei” and asked her to call him “godpa”.
But he abused their bond when he molested the girl on three occasions, from when she was in Primary 5 in 2016 until she was in Secondary 1 in another school in 2018.
The 38-year-old, who has been suspended from duty since June 2020 and is no longer teaching in any school, was convicted on Sept 25 of three molestation charges after a trial.
Details about the man and the primary school cannot be disclosed owing to a gag order to protect the identity of the victim, who is now 18. She was between 10 and 13 years old at the time of the offences.
What began as “an innocuous teacher-student relationship” grew into an inappropriate one, the prosecution said.
Deputy public prosecutors Lim Ying Min, Grace Teo and Kelly Ng stated in court documents that the victim started to confide in the accused about her family problems when she was in Primary 4.
Among other things, she told him that she did not have a good relationship with her brother and was not close to her parents.
In 2016, as the form teacher of the victim’s Primary 5 class, he created a WhatsApp group chat with the pupils.
He also communicated privately with her on WhatsApp and Line, another messaging platform, helping her with her school work and providing a listening ear for her non-school related matters.
In these private WhatsApp conversations, which they had until June 2020 after she left the primary school, he used terms of endearment including “baby” and “bao bei” on the girl.
During the trial, the man testified that “bao bei” means “precious”, adding: “Like a precious daughter.”
The DPPs told the court: “The accused also... told the victim things like ‘love’ you and ‘miss’ you. So close was their relationship that the accused was comfortable to talk to the victim about intimate topics... (including) whether she was having her menstruation.”
Over the years, the man helped the victim financially and bought gifts for her.
The victim had told the court during the trial that the man molested her for the first time in their school when she was in Primary 5, after the last period of the day.
The DPPs told District Judge John Ng: “The victim testified that the accused ‘suddenly slapped my butt’. The slap was quick and lasted seconds.
“She turned to look at the accused and he looked at her immediately and said, ‘Sorry, is it your chest?’. The victim replied that it was not. She felt surprised and violated.”
The pair continued texting each other in 2017 even though he was not her form teacher when she was in Primary 6. He also did not teach her class in any subjects.
The pair were in a classroom in their school that year when the man hugged the girl.
“The victim testified that when the accused hugged her from the front, she froze and her mind went blank,” the prosecutors said.
“She did not know what to do. After the accused had finished hugging the victim, both of them left the classroom.”
The girl continued communicating with the man when she was in Secondary 1 in 2018.
In December 2018, the accused initiated an outing to watch a movie with the victim’s Primary 5 class, and he put his hand under her shirt and stroked her abdomen after the movie started.
The man’s offences came to light when the victim told another teacher on June 8, 2020 about the incidents.
The victim alerted the police the next day and officers arrested the offender at his home later that evening.
In 2021, the victim was disgnosed with major depressive disorder and post traumatic stress disorder.
The man is represented by lawyer Mark Yeo, who had argued in defence that the offences did not and could not have happened.
The man’s mitigation and sentencing will take place on Oct 23. - The Straits Times/ANN
