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SINGAPORE: A man who molested his maid and made sexual remarks at her while his wife was heavily pregnant was sentenced to 22 weeks’ jail on Wednesday (Oct 23).
Alan Ngai Teck Wee, 42, was also ordered to pay compensation of S$4,500 after pleading guilty to attempted voyeurism, molestation and insulting the modesty of the 33-year-old maid.
The victim cannot be named due to a gag order to protect her identity.
Ngai was living with his wife, their five-year-old daughter, and the maid when he committed the offences. The victim had been working for the family since 2016.
Ngai molested the maid on multiple occasions from August to September 2021, around seven months after his wife got pregnant.
On one occasion, he asked the maid to rub medicated oil on his stomach, and she complied.
As she was doing so, Ngai pointed to his crotch and told her in Mandarin to massage him there. The maid told him that she “will rub hot oil” and left the room.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Tan Jing Min said that as Ngai’s wife was heavily pregnant, the maid would follow him to run errands, including sending his daughter to her tuition classes.
In August 2021, after dropping the daughter off for tuition, Ngai and the maid went to a shop in Ang Mo Kio as she wanted to buy a skincare product.
Intending to insult her modesty, Ngai made a lewd remark at her which shocked her.
In September, the maid was cooking in the kitchen when he touched her left buttock and made a comment about her body.
DPP Tan said the victim felt shocked and angry that she was molested, but did not tell his wife as she did not want her to worry.
That month, Ngai placed a black spy camera in the common toilet of the house with the intention of observing the maid in a private act.
As she was using the toilet, she saw the device on top of an inverted cup on the vanity. She became suspicious and kept the device.
When Ngai realised the device was missing, he asked her if she had seen “something on an inverted cup”.
She asked what it was, and he replied that it was for the Wi-Fi connection. The maid lied that she did not see anything.
That same day, she told Ngai that she needed to go to Peninsula Plaza urgently to remit money as her relative had an emergency, and left the house with the device.
She visited an electronic shop, confirmed that the device was a spy camera and made a police report.
Seeking 24 to 26 weeks’ jail, DPP Tan said how Ngai committed the offences showed a persistent and escalating pattern of sexual harassment toward the victim.
“The accused had progressed in his offending from touching relatively innocuous parts of the victim’s body, insulting her modesty and simultaneously shaming her with sexualised comments, progressing to intruding on other more private areas, and culminating in a deviant attempt to objectify her through filming her nakedness for his own pleasure,” said the prosecutor.
For molestation, an offender can be jailed for up to two years, fined or caned, or sentenced to any combination of these punishments. - The Straits Times/ANN
