SINGAPORE — A youth raped his then 13-year-old girlfriend and got her pregnant. After breaking up with her and serving reformative training for an unrelated offence, he had underage sex with another girl, then aged 14.
Both girls had to undergo abortions as the youth did not use a condom in crimes that prosecutors described as “callous and reckless”.
On Wednesday (April 17), the man, now 21, was sentenced to reformative training for a minimum of six months. He had pleaded guilty earlier to one charge each of rape and sexual penetration of a minor. He had also pleaded guilty over an unrelated rioting incident.
Nine charges of sexual penetration of a minor and one of possessing a scheduled weapon were taken into consideration in sentencing.
Reformative training is a regime where young offenders are detained at a reformative training centre and undergo required rehabilitation programmes.
The man and the victims cannot be named due to a gag order protecting their identities. Several youths who are co-accused in the rioting case cannot be named as well as they were under the age of 18 during the time of the offence.
Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Adelle Tai told the court that she intends to file an appeal against the sentence.
The prosecution had sought a lengthy jail term and caning for the man, arguing that reformative training was “wholly inappropriate” and that “deterrence and retribution have eclipsed rehabilitation” in this case.
SEXUAL CRIMES
According to court documents, the man started dating a 12-year-old on July 18, 2020. He was then 17 years old and was undergoing probation for unrelated offences that were not disclosed.
Two months into their relationship, he grew more controlling of the girl and asked her to cut off contact with her friends, among other things.
He pressured her into having unprotected sex with him, which mostly took place at the staircase landing of public flats — and they did so on at least 20 occasions.
This was despite the girl being afraid of getting pregnant.
Sometime in December 2020, the man raped the victim and did not use protection.
A few months later, she missed her menstrual period and suspected she was pregnant. Although she informed the man, he dismissed her concerns and continued to have sex with her.
In March 2021, the man and girl broke up. Shortly after, on March 15, he began serving a reformative training sentence for theft in dwelling, court documents stated.
On April 14, 2021, the girl told her mother that she suspected she was pregnant and was taken to KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital.
As she was found to be pregnant, the hospital informed the police of a case of suspected child abuse.
The girl underwent an abortion on April 27, 2021, and a DNA analysis of the foetus confirmed that the youth was the biological father.
When the man was released on reformative training supervision, he started dating a 14-year-old girl on May 15, 2022. He was then 19 years old.
Shortly after they entered the relationship, they began to have underage sex, some of which was unprotected.
Once again, the man found out that his girlfriend was pregnant but continued having sex with her.
The 14-year-old underwent an abortion procedure on Nov 14, 2022.
RIOTING INCIDENT
Separately, the man was with eight other youths at Waterway Point on July 4, 2022 at about 4pm. One of these youths was his then-14-year-old girlfriend with whom he had underage sex.
They decided to meet and beat up a 16-year-old youth at a multistorey car park located at Block 302 Punggol Place.
This was because the victim’s friend had insulted one of the youths.
The youths punched, slapped and kicked the victim several times, resulting in several bruises and cuts on his face.
SELFISHLY EXPOSE VICTIMS TO TRAUMA OF ABORTION: DPPS
DPPs Tai and Melissa Heng described the man’s crimes as “callous and reckless”.
“The accused wholly disregarded the victims’ youth and vulnerability, and in fact capitalised on them to selfishly expose the victims to the risk of pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases in failing to use protection,” said the prosecutors.
“This led not one, but two victims to have to undergo the trauma of an abortion at a tender age of 13 and 14 respectively.”
The prosecutors objected to probation or reformative training, and asked for a sentence of nine years’ and 10 months’ jail to 11 years’ and one month jail with six strokes of the cane.
The prosecutors said this is because the sentence “must affirm that under-aged girls like the present victims should be accorded the fullest protection of the law”.
They added that he had committed the sex-related offences while undergoing probation and on reformative training supervision.
In delivering the sentence of reformative training on Wednesday, Deputy Principal District Judge Kessler Soh said he “found nothing to suggest that he was (being) exploitative”.
However, he noted that the man had unprotected sex with the two girls, and he had subjected them to the “traumatic procedure” of abortion.
Judge Soh added that the man was found to be suitable for reformative training, and a psychologist had made an assessment that the man has had “positive shifts”.
These “shifts” include increased focus on his studies and disassociation with friends that were of negative influence.
The judge added that rehabilitation was a consideration in his sentencing.
DPP Tai then told the court the prosecution intends to appeal against the sentence.
For statutory rape, the man could have been jailed for up to 20 years, and fined or caned.
For sexual penetration of a minor aged between 14 and 16, he could have been jailed for up to 10 years, fined or both.
As for rioting, the man faced up to seven years’ jail and caning.
