SINGAPORE — While playing a video for his young students during a lesson, Richard Christopher Monks repeatedly molested a three-year-old girl under her dress.

He also aimed a mobile phone camera at her buttocks. The authorities could not determine how many photos or videos he took, because he claimed that he had lost the phone in Thailand after committing the offence.

The Briton, 29, initially intended to claim trial but pleaded guilty on Monday (Feb 1) to one count of molesting a minor under 14.

He will return to court on Wednesday to give his mitigation plea and be sentenced.

At the time of his offence in late 2018, he was working as a reading specialist at a language training and literacy centre in Singapore that catered to students aged two-and-a-half to 12.

The victim, then aged three years and 11 months old, attended his lessons every Saturday afternoon. She cannot be named due to a court order to protect her identity.

The court heard that she attended a lesson with five other students, aged between four and five years old, on Oct 20 in 2018.

Monks conducted the lesson in a classroom with a table in the middle of the room, surrounded by eight chairs. Deputy Public Prosecutors Nicholas Khoo and Tan Hsiao Tien said that he was aware of a closed-circuit television camera installed there.

He soon got the students to sit on one side of the table to watch a video, placing himself behind them. 

This meant that the children’s upper bodies would block the camera’s view of his hands. The lower halves of their bodies also would not be captured from such an angle.

Monks then used his iPhone to play a video and placed it on the table.

During the video-watching session, Monks molested the victim many times over 15 minutes. She expressed her discomfort by fidgeting and turning back to look at him several times but he did not stop.

In the end, despite his arrangement, CCTV footage still managed to capture him repeatedly pointing another mobile phone camera at her buttocks. 

Since he had claimed that he lost this phone in Thailand, it is unclear if any photos or videos he took still exist or have been destroyed.

A week after the incident, the girl’s parents were preparing to take her to another of Monks’ lessons when she appeared reluctant to go. She then told her mother that “Teacher Richard” had touched her.

The mother filed a police report at Kampong Java Neighbourhood Police Centre that evening and stopped taking her daughter to the language centre.

Monks was arrested on Nov 1 in 2018 after returning to Singapore from a four-day trip in Thailand. 

When questioned by the police in Singapore, he denied molesting the girl in three statements.

For his offence, he could be jailed up to five years, fined or caned, or any combination of the three.