• Rapist’s conduct was reprehensible and he did not learn from his previous jail terms, a judge said
• He held a penknife to victim’s neck and raped her twice
• He tried to amend the charges to incest during his trial

SINGAPORE — A 53-year-old former forklift driver was sentenced to 32 years’ jail in the High Court on Monday (July 27) for raping, molesting, criminally intimidating and causing hurt to his biological daughter when she was aged 23.

Justice Hoo Sheau Peng said that while this was a lengthy punishment, it was to reflect his “reprehensible conduct” of subjecting the victim to “sustained sexual assault” in the wee hours of March 27, 2016.

He cannot be named to protect the identity of his daughter, who is now 27 years old.

The man had not learned from his previous brushes with the law either, the judge noted.

In 2000, he had been jailed 10 years and given 12 strokes of the cane for attempted murder and theft. 

Most recently in 2010, he was sentenced to six years’ jail and 24 strokes of the cane for two offences of robbery with hurt.

For the latest case, the man had claimed trial to all charges, alleging that the daughter had initiated and consented to the sexual acts. He also sought to have the rape charges amended to those of incest.

Justice Hoo rejected the allegation of consent last month while convicting him of all nine charges.

His daughter had testified that he had punched her on the head, choked her and threatened her with a penknife to force her to submit to his sexual deviancy.

During the trial, he admitted that he had had sex with her twice that morning and engaged in other sexual acts.

However, he denied touching her private parts, threatening her with a penknife or punching and choking her.

For aggravated rape, he could have been jailed up to 20 years. 

While the offence also carries a mandatory minimum of 12 strokes of the cane, he cannot be caned by law as he is above 50 years old.

No additional jail time was given in lieu of caning due to the length of the sentence.

VICTIM THOUGHT OF SUICIDE

Deputy Public Prosecutor Kavita Uthrapathy, who sought 36 years’ jail, noted that his daughter was the only one who visited him during his various stints in prison. 

She had secured a job for him and invited him to live with her and her mother in a flat near Sembawang. However, he assaulted her within weeks of his release from prison.

He had “grossly violated” the trust his daughter had reposed in him and their relationship “extended beyond mere blood ties”, the prosecutor said.

The man’s lawyer, Mr Lau Wen Jin, who was appointed to him by the Criminal Legal Aid Scheme, asked for no more than 28 years’ jail.

As the victim was an adult at the time, Mr Lau argued that there was no abuse of trust. The father was not in a position of responsibility towards her, the lawyer added.

Justice Hoo disagreed with Mr Lau on this, adding that he had persistently assaulted the victim and caused her severe harm. She contemplated suicide in the immediate aftermath and was eventually diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder.

Mr Lau told the court that his client also suffered from poor health, including constipation and sleep apnea, and has not seen his mother in six years. 

The judge said that these were not mitigating factors.

THEY WERE ALONE IN FLAT

The court previously heard that the man had raped his daughter in the flat where they lived with her mother, his ex-wife.

He told the court that he and his daughter had a very “loving relationship”, though it was one that was fraught with difficulties because of her "drug and alcohol abuse".

Five days before the sexual assault, the man’s ex-wife had left the flat to stay with her son at his home. This left the father and daughter, who was unemployed at the time, alone in the flat.

Early in the morning of March 27 in 2016, the pair drank alcohol and talked until she fell asleep. 

She testified that she woke up when she felt someone touching her private parts over her shorts and saw her father was doing it while completely naked.

He then held a penknife at her neck and said: “Don’t shout, I’ll slash you.” He ignored her pleas to let her go.

The man raped her twice, forced her to give him oral sex, and punched and choked her into compliance when she tried to wrestle the penknife away from him, the prosecution said.

Court documents showed that while holding the penknife to her neck, he also told her: “Take out your clothing, otherwise I will use the knife to cut you till you die.”

He testified, however, that she had initiated sexual acts with him and claimed that his daughter told him to “do it and make her happy”.

Later that morning, she managed to get her mobile phone back from him and left the flat alone on the pretext of buying a drink.

She used the phone to call a man, whose identity was removed from court documents, and asked him to pick her up.

They went to the Jurong Police Division headquarters, where she met her brother and she made a police report. The father was arrested at about 8pm later that day.

After raping her, the father had called her 36 times on her mobile phone between the time when she left the flat until his arrest later that evening and sent her eight phone text messages and a WhatsApp message, saying in one of them that he was sorry.