• Man touched his daughter inappropriately on at least four occasions in 2015 
• Daughter developed symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder 
• Judge said that punishment must be “uncompromising and severe”

SINGAPORE — A man who sexually assaulted his 14-year-old daughter had inflicted such psychological harm on her that she began suffering recurrent nightmares of the incidents.

She also started hearing voices telling her to take her own life “so everything will be okay”.

On Monday (July 20), the 55-year-old man was sentenced to 41 months, or about three years and five months, behind bars.

He pleaded guilty to three charges of using criminal force with the intent to outrage the modesty of his daughter, who is now 19. Another charge of a similar nature was taken into consideration for sentencing.        

The offences, which began in 2015, came to light when the victim filed a police report against her father on the evening of Nov 6, 2017. He was arrested the next morning. 

Neither party can be named to protect the identity of the teenager.

WHAT HAPPENED

Investigations found that the man had touched his daughter inappropriately on at least four occasions. He worked at night as an operations specialist with a battery firm when he committed the offences. 

Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Mark Yeo said that aside from his daughter, the man was living with his three sons, wife and mother-in-law.

The first incident happened sometime in 2015, when the man returned home from work one morning and entered the master bedroom, where his daughter and one of his sons were sleeping on a bed. His wife had already left for work.

DPP Yeo said that the man intended to sleep on a mattress on the floor when his son, whose age was not stated, began crying.

Hoping to put his son back to sleep, the man decided to sleep between his son and daughter. 

DPP Yeo said that the victim turned in her sleep, which resulted in her leg resting on her father’s thigh.

This aroused the man, and he touched her chest and other parts of her body inappropriately while she was fully clothed.

The man continued to outrage the modesty of his daughter in a similar fashion on several other occasions before he got even bolder, touching her under her underwear and rubbing his private parts near hers after pulling down her shorts, DPP Yeo said.

The victim did not consent to these acts, the prosecutor added.

CONFUSED AND HURT

The victim told senior consultant psychiatrist Parvathy Pathy of the Child Guidance Clinic at the Institute of Mental Health that she felt “confused and hurt” about what her father had done, DPP Yeo said.

She had experienced flashbacks of the incident and nightmares of her father touching her.

The teenager also told Dr Pathy that she would experience “low mood” occasionally and thought that “dying might end the problem”. Voices in her head told her to “jump off, so everything will be okay”, DPP Yeo said.

A psychiatric report from Raffles Hospital stated that the victim was experiencing symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder.

In delivering his sentence, District Judge Marvin Bay said that the man had betrayed his position as a father by exploiting his daughter to gratify his “baser desires”.

While the judge acknowledged that the man’s guilty plea had spared the victim from testifying in court, the teenager had suffered intense trauma because of the man’s violations.

“In sentencing, the court must take a firm stand against this manner of sexual exploitation of vulnerable family members, and punishments must be accordingly uncompromising and severe,” District Judge Bay said. 

The penalty for anyone found guilty of using assault or criminal force to outrage the modesty of another is a jail term of up to two years, a fine, or a combination of both.

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this report stated that the man pleaded guilty to five charges of using criminal force with the intent to outrage the modesty of his daughter. This was incorrect. He pleaded guilty to three charges, with another charge of a similar nature taken into consideration for sentencing. We are sorry for the error.