SINGAPORE: A man who sexually abused the daughter of his then-girlfriend was sentenced to 11 years’ jail and eight strokes of the cane on Thursday (Feb 13).
The girl, who was 13 to 14 at the time, did not dare to tell anyone about the abuse and became withdrawn in school, drawing concern from her teacher.
Unable to focus on her studies, she eventually dropped out of post-secondary education when she was 16 and started working to support her family.
The man, 32, pleaded guilty to a charge of sexual assault. Five other charges, including two charges of rape, were taken into consideration.
He cannot be named to protect the identity of the victim.
The girl treated the offender as her stepfather, said Deputy Public Prosecutors Wong Woon Kwong and Jocelyn Teo.
The man lived with the victim’s family and his own mother in a flat at the time.
He first sexually abused the victim in the flat between Mar 26 and Jun 11 in 2020, acting forcefully when she resisted.
After that, he warned her not to tell anyone, and to say he had gone to meet his friends if she was asked. She complied out of shame and fear.
On another occasion between Jan 1 and Feb 11 in 2021, the man sexually assaulted the victim in her bed at night.
When he saw that she was awake, he warned her to keep quiet so that no one else in the family would wake up.
He sexually abused her again two more times that year.
The girl did not dare to tell anyone as she was scared and did not think that people would believe her.
She also felt conflicted as the offender was her mother’s boyfriend, prosecutors said.
From 2019 to 2021, the girl was regarded as a helpful and participative student with leadership qualities, and held a leadership position in her Secondary 1 class.
She was also a member of the school team in her co-curricular activity (CCA).
But the victim was affected by the sexual abuse and began having issues in school.
She started missing practice sessions for her CCA from the end of 2020 into the next year.
In August 2021, the victim gathered the courage to tell a classmate about the abuse after he shared his family problems with her. She also confided in her then-boyfriend.
With their encouragement and support, she informed her teacher of the abuse on Sep 1, 2021, and the offender was arrested on the same day.
The girl explained that the abuse made her unable to focus and to instead spend her afternoons thinking about what to do about the situation, prosecutors said.
The effects on the victim continued even after the abuse was reported.
In a marked change from her previous behaviour, the victim became more withdrawn in school in 2022.
She completed secondary school and started further education in 2023, but dropped out about a month into her course as she could not focus.
The victim also had to move multiple times. She was warded at a hospital after reporting the abuse. After being discharged, she lived at an interim placement and assessment centre before moving to a children’s home.
Throughout this period, she was not allowed to have unsupervised contact with her family members.
The girl absconded multiple times from the children’s home, including once for a period of more than two months in early 2023.
She was eventually placed in a family member’s care in April 2023, with plans in place to ensure her safety.
The prosecutors sought 12 to 13 years’ jail and eight strokes of the cane, arguing that the girl’s life had been “irreparably damaged” by the man’s actions.
Mr Wong and Ms Teo highlighted the man’s abuse of trust and the victim’s vulnerability given her young age.
They also argued that the offences were premeditated, as the man waited until everyone at home was asleep and warned the victim to keep quiet to avoid detection, and that an element of grooming was involved.
Defence lawyers Prakash Otharam and Ashvin Hariharan, of the law firm named after Mr Hariharan, asked for eight to nine years’ jail and six strokes of the cane.
They disagreed with the prosecution on whether premeditation and grooming were part of their client’s conduct.
The lawyers also argued that there was “no evidence of especially serious physical or mental effects on the victim such as pregnancy, the transmission of a serious disease, or a psychiatric illness”.
There was no indication of severe harm to the victim “apart from what would normally be expected of offences of a similar nature”, and that was already taken into account in considering the severity of the offences, they said.
In sentencing, Justice Dedar Singh Gill said he had taken into account the harm caused to the victim, as the facts “make plain” that she was affected by what the offender did to her.
He also noted that the man decided to plead guilty about one-and-a-half weeks before the trial was to start, which reduced the sentence slightly.
Justice Gill then granted the defence’s application for the man to start serving his sentence after Hari Raya Puasa.
The man could have been jailed up to 20 years and fined or caned for the proceeded charge of sexual assault.
