• A Singaporean molested his stepdaughter repeatedly when she was aged nine to 13
• She confided in her mother who confronted him about it, but he kept silent about it
• He molested the victim some more after this before she told a close friend
• A judge noted that the man had left lasting psychological impact on the victim

SINGAPORE — He began sexually violating his stepdaughter when she was in Primary 3, molesting her at least four times over the next few years before she confided in a close friend.

The Singaporean man, now aged 46, was sentenced to three years and one month of jail time as well as three strokes of the cane on Monday (Nov 8). He cannot be named due to a court order to protect the girl’s identity.

He pleaded guilty to two counts of outrage of modesty of a minor under 14, with two other similar charges taken into consideration for sentencing.

The court heard he committed acts such as grabbing her thighs and trying to make her perform a sex act on him.

When he was arrested in October last year, he admitted to investigators that he did this because he had developed sexual desires for her despite knowing it was wrong. He also admitted that he could not control these desires.

He targeted the girl from 2016 to 2020, when she was aged between nine and 13. He worked as a trailer driver at the time.

He tied the knot with the girl’s mother about 10 years ago and has three other children with her. The victim was the woman’s only child from her previous marriage.

WHAT HAPPENED

On one occasion in 2017, when the girl was in Pri 4, she was sleeping on a mattress on the floor in their flat when he opened the door and lay beside her. He touched her hair and asked if she loved him, to which she replied yes.

He then knelt beside her and tickled her waist area with the intention to molest her.

When she laughed, he told her to keep quiet so as not to rouse her younger sister who was sleeping next to her. She managed to escape the room and hid in the master bedroom toilet.

Sometime after this, the girl told her mother that he would enter her room at about 3am to 4am when she was sleeping and touch her genitals.

When the older woman then confronted her husband about this a few days later, he remained quiet about the revelation and merely said that “time will tell and people will change”.

Then in 2018, the victim — aged 10 or 11 at the time — was again sleeping when he went into her room. He then placed his genitals at her lips, doing this for one to two minutes before moving to the side and stroking her head.

At this point, his wife abruptly entered the room. He then acted like he was trying to wake the girl up for school.

It was only in September last year that the girl mustered the courage to tell her friend about her stepfather molesting her. Her friend then told a school counsellor, who informed the Ministry of Social and Family Development.

Shortly afterwards, a child protection officer took her to Woodlands West Neighbourhood Police Centre to make a police report.

The victim said that she did not reveal the later offences to her mother out of fear of jeopardising her family. She acknowledged that her siblings loved her stepfather a lot and she did not want her mother to be upset.

She also acknowledged that he had taken good care of her as a stepfather, the court further heard.

EGREGIOUS ABUSE OF TRUST

Deputy Public Prosecutor Tay Jia En sought three-and-a-half years’ jail and six strokes of the cane, saying that the stepfather had broken the law over a “long and protracted period” and exploited the trust that the victim had in him.

In mitigation, the man, who did not have a lawyer, pleaded for leniency and said that he has three children to support with the youngest entering primary school next year.

He added that he also supports his mother financially and his father is in a nursing home.

In sentencing him, District Judge Sharmila Sripathy called it a case of “egregious abuse of trust and authority”. He was a father figure to the victim and had abused her within the family home, where a young child should feel safe and protected at all times, she said.

“I note that you initiated the offences while the child was asleep and this serves to heighten your culpability given her vulnerability,” she told the court.

He had further left “lasting psychological impact” on the victim, the judge noted. The young girl had described the 2017 offence to the school counsellor as “unforgettable”.

For each offence of molesting a minor, the man could have been jailed for up to five years, fined, caned, or receive any combination of the three.