SINGAPORE — He was a “fairly diligent” worker who had been promoted twice in six months.

Then earlier this year, he saw a female colleague alone in a storeroom and decided to molest her.

For his actions, Wong Joon Kit was sentenced to nine months’ jail and three strokes of the cane on Friday (Oct 25). The 26-year-old Malaysian pleaded guilty to one charge of molestation.

His 22-year-old victim cannot be named due to a court order to protect her identity. They both worked in the men’s department of Takashimaya, a store in Ngee Ann City shopping mall along Orchard Road.

The court heard that on March 27, Wong noticed that his colleague was talking on the phone alone in the storeroom.

He approached her from behind, leaned against her back and stretched his hand over her shoulder to undo the top button of her shirt.

Wong then slipped his hand under her top and bra before squeezing her breast.

Taken aback, she shouted at him, yanked his hand out of her shirt and told him to stop. Wong then left the storeroom.

She filed a police report the next day, and he was arrested about a week later.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Etsuko Lim sought the sentence imposed. She said that Wong committing his offence in a “confined and secluded area” suggested that he wanted to take advantage of the setting to molest the victim.

“It was not a brush or a mere fleeting touch, but a forceful squeeze that conveys a higher degree of intrusiveness,” the prosecutor added.

In mitigation, Wong’s lawyer John Koh said that he had co-operated with the authorities and this showed his remorse.

It was a “one-off transgression” and Wong was not a menace to society. He was also a “fairly diligent worker” before molesting the victim, and had been promoted twice in six months, Mr Koh added.

Wong could have been jailed up to two years, fined, caned or any combination of the three.