- Illustrative photo.
SINGAPORE: The prosecution has called for up to 30 months’ jail and three strokes of the cane for a primary school teacher who molested his female former pupil on three separate occasions between 2016 and 2018.
On Wednesday (Oct 23), Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Grace Teo told District Judge John Ng that the man’s offences had gone undetected for a long time, adding: “The victim’s life (was) derailed.”
The victim, now 18, was between 10 and 13 years old at the time of the offences. In 2021, she was diagnosed with major depressive disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder.
But defence lawyer Mark Yeo pleaded for the man to be given 16 months’ jail and no caning.
Yeo told the judge that the 38-year-old, who cannot be named due to a gag order to protect the victim’s identity, had acted out of character when he committed the offences, and that he was a kind and caring teacher towards most of his students.
The man, who used to be the victim’s form teacher, molested her on three occasions from when she was in Primary 5 in 2016 until she was in Secondary 1 in another school in 2018.
He was convicted on Sept 25 of three molestation charges, and has also been suspended from duty since June 2020. He is no longer teaching in any school.
In earlier proceedings, DPPs Teo, Lim Ying Min 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.
As the form teacher of the victim’s Primary 5 class in 2016, the man created a WhatsApp group chat with the pupils.
He also communicated privately with the girl, helping her with her schoolwork 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”.
Over the years, the man helped her financially and bought her gifts.
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 had told Judge Ng: “The victim testified that the accused ‘suddenly slapped (her) butt’. The slap was quick and lasted seconds.”
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 any subjects.
The pair were in a classroom in their school that year when he hugged her. She continued communicating with him when she was in Sec 1 in 2018.
In December that year, the offender initiated an outing to watch a movie with the pupils from his former Primary 5 class, including the victim.
He then slipped 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 he was arrested at his home later that evening. He will be sentenced on Nov 21. - The Straits Times/ANN
