SINGAPORE: A technician sexually assaulted his daughter in her bedroom when she was between 12 and 14 while his wife was overseas or working the night shift.
On Thursday (Jan 16), the 52-year-old man was sentenced to 18 years’ jail after he pleaded guilty in the High Court to two counts of aggravated sexual assault by penetration. The sentence included a one-year term in lieu of 24 strokes of the cane.
The man, a Singapore permanent resident, cannot be caned as he is above the age of 50.
Five other charges for various sexual offences were taken into consideration during sentencing.
Deputy Public Prosecutor David Koh said in sentencing arguments that the man had tried to blame the victim for what he had done.
The prosecutor said that during a psychiatric assessment following his arrest, the man claimed that the girl had induced him to commit the offences by looking at him “in a sexual mode”.
On hearing this, the man, who did not have a lawyer, immediately shouted in court that this was the truth.
The prosecutor also highlighted the man’s written mitigation plea, in which he stated that the victim’s “sidelong glances” made him behave in a wrong manner.
Several times during the hearing, the man sobbed and claimed that he was considering the “well-being” of his daughter by agreeing to the facts read out by the prosecutor.
The man and the girl’s mother, who are now divorced, also have two sons.
DPP Koh told the court that between July 31 and Aug 9 in 2019, the girl’s mother was not at home as she was visiting relatives in India.
After the girl returned home from school one day during that period, the man went to her bedroom and sat beside her on the floor.
As she played games on her mobile phone, the man rubbed her thigh, put his hand under her shorts, and sexually violated her.
The victim told him to stop, grabbed him by the wrist and pulled his hand away.
The man carried out the same intrusive act on her on two more occasions, including once in October 2019 after she had taken her last paper in the Primary School Leaving Examination.
From 2020, the victim’s mother began to work night shifts as a security guard. When her mother was at work, the victim slept alone in the room they shared.
The brothers shared another bedroom, while the man slept on a sofa in the living room. Two other bedrooms were rented out to tenants.
On at least two occasions in 2020 and early 2021, the man entered the victim’s room late at night to touch her inappropriately after everyone else had gone to bed.
The girl would lock the door to her room at night, but the man had a key.
In 2021, the man sent her a pornographic video over WhatsApp.
The prosecutor said that as a cumulative result of all these incidents, the victim felt very upset and stressed, and would stay alert at night trying to guard against her father.
The victim became aware that what her father was doing to her was wrong after she attended sex education in secondary school.
However, at that point, she was afraid that he might scold or hit her if she reported the matter, said the prosecutor.
The victim eventually reported the abuse after one final incident.
On July 26, 2021, the man began to undo the fastener on his pants after molesting her.
Fearing that he would rape her, the girl fled the room.
The prosecutor said: “The victim was extremely upset about this incident, as well as the previous incidents, and felt that she could not take it any more.”
On July 27, 2021, the victim told her form teacher about the incidents. Officers from the Ministry of Social and Family Development were informed, and a police report was made.
The man was arrested on the same day. - The Straits Times/ANN
