SINGAPORE: A 34-year-old man was on Wednesday (May 15) sentenced to two years’ jail and three strokes of the cane for offences including molesting his girlfriend’s daughter.
When the assault happened in 2016, the man was 26 years old and the girl was 13. The offender cannot be named in order to protect the victim’s identity.
He pleaded guilty to one charge of using criminal force to outrage the girl’s modesty, and two unrelated traffic offences. Two other charges were considered for sentencing.
The court heard that the girl’s mother entered a relationship with the offender in 2012, and lived with him and his family. The girl stayed with her grandparents but occasionally slept over.
When the victim stayed over, she would sleep on the mattress that her mother and the offender usually shared. The mother would sleep between the girl and the offender.
Sometime between October and November 2016, the three went to bed in this sleeping arrangement. The girl noticed her mother had fallen asleep as she was snoring.
The girl was lying down and using her phone when she felt a touch on her thigh. She did not react as she thought her mother had accidentally touched her.
She then realised it was not her mother as the hand felt rough. She tried to move away, but was molested.
The man thought that the girl had fallen asleep when he sexually assaulted her, according to the prosecution.
The victim’s mother was still asleep, but the girl did not dare to wake her up. She moved to the edge of the bed and continued using her phone.
Later that night, however, the offender molested her again. Scared, the girl got out of bed, sat in a corner of the room and did not go back to sleep.
About two weeks after this, the girl told her mother what had happened.
“However, her mother refused to believe her and chose to stay with the accused because she loved him,” the prosecution said.
The girl tried to forget the incidents but would continue to have flashbacks and nightmares, and spoke to her mother about it.
She eventually made a police report more than four years later, in December 2020, after “her mother gave her approval to do so”, said the prosecution.
The man will also be disqualified from holding a driving licence for two years after his release, as part of his sentence for the traffic offences.
