SINGAPORE — He began molesting and sexually assaulting his younger sister when she was just five years old and he was 13, after he watched pornographic cartoons online.

Their mother caught wind of his actions from the start but did nothing other than remind him that the girl was his sibling. 

The abuse gradually escalated to rape seven years later, which he once committed while his younger brother and mother were sleeping in the same bedroom. His offences only came to light in late 2017 when his sister, then 12, got pregnant.

The man, now 22 years old, has been in remand since his arrest in early 2018. He was sentenced to 11-and-a-half years’ jail and seven strokes of the cane in the High Court on Thursday (Jan 30). 

Their mother, who has not been charged with any offence so far, was present in court and was given a few minutes to speak to him after the hearing.

He pleaded guilty to two charges of statutory rape and molesting a minor under 14. Another seven similar charges — including aggravated sexual assault by penetration — were taken into consideration for sentencing.

None of the siblings can be named due to a court gag order to protect the girl’s identity. She is now 14 years old.

When their mother discovered the girl’s pregnancy, she suspected her son was the father. She then took the girl to a clinic in Johor Baru for an abortion, afraid that her son would be arrested if they went to KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital (KKH). 

The baby turned out to be someone else’s.

GREW INTERESTED IN ‘PETITE UNDERAGE FEMALES’

The victim is the youngest of four children, while the accused is the second oldest.

Their parents divorced in 2013 and shared joint custody of the four of them, court documents stated. 

Their mother — now 41 years old — had care and control of the accused, while their father, now aged 43, cared for the girl.

In 2010, their father temporarily moved out with the girl for a few months, before they left permanently in 2011 when he decided to divorce his ex-wife. He has since remarried.

The accused grew curious about pornography in 2010 and watched videos online for a few months, before developing a sexual interest in “petite underage females”. He was in Secondary 1 at the time, Deputy Public Prosecutors (DPPs) Marshall Lim and Michelle Lu told the court.

“He began to feel the urge to perform the sexual acts that he had watched in those pornographic animations or cartoons on a girl. Eventually, he decided to satisfy his sexual urges using the victim,” the prosecutors said.

He would rub his private parts against the girl whenever he felt sexually aroused at home. On one occasion, he interrupted her afternoon nap by doing so. 

After their mother noticed semen stains on the girl’s underwear when she helped her take a shower, the older woman asked her son if he had molested the girl again and if he had raped her.

Court documents did not state how she first knew of the abuse — this was the second time it had happened.

When he denied raping the girl, their mother reminded him that she was his younger sister and that he could not “do such a thing” to her.

MUM TRIED TO PULL VICTIM OUT OF SCHOOL

The accused ended up raping the girl three times in 2017, when he was aged 20 and she was 12. He was in National Service at the time.

The girl had moved back with the accused and their mother in June 2017, after being allowed to visit them once a week without staying overnight.

On the final occasion around August or September that year, he raped her while they were sleeping on the lower deck of a double-decker bed. 

Their mother was asleep in the same bedroom on a mattress on the floor, waking up after he was done. She again reminded him that she was his younger sister and asked him if he was not scared of the consequences. 

In the middle of October that year, the girl told their mother that she had missed her period. The older woman realised her daughter was pregnant after buying an over-the-counter pregnancy test kit for her, which came back positive.

On Nov 17 that year, a doctor at a Tiong Bahru clinic confirmed the pregnancy. While he advised them to go to KKH for a medical examination and to lodge a police report, their mother decided against it as she was worried that her son would be arrested.

That evening, his godmother came to their flat and he admitted that he had had sexual intercourse with his sister. 

Court documents did not state if the godmother acted on the information, but about a month later, the two siblings and their mother went to a Johor Baru clinic for an abortion. 

The doctor there declined to perform it, so their mother told the girl to stop attending school to avoid detection of her pregnancy. 

The foetus was subsequently aborted in Singapore and another boy is currently being investigated for being the biological father, said prosecutors.

In January 2018, the girl’s secondary school contacted her mother about her repeated absences. When the mother told them the girl was unwell and applied to withdraw her from school, the school asked for a doctor’s note.

After the mother eventually revealed that her daughter was pregnant, the school principal told the Ministry of Social and Family Development’s Child Protection Services, which lodged a police report.

The accused was diagnosed with paedophilic disorder after he was arrested, as well as having developed an adjustment disorder with depressed mood.

‘SIMPLY NO WORDS’: DPPs

Prosecutors pushed for at least 10-and-a-half years’ jail and seven strokes of the cane, saying that the accused “blatantly took advantage of his mother’s continued indulgence of his deviant conduct” and raped the girl without a condom as he wanted to know what it felt like to have unprotected sex.

“There are simply no words that can adequately describe the egregiousness of sexual assault perpetrated by a family member. This is made worse when the victim is a young and defenceless child. For (the girl), the first sexual encounter she will remember is with her eldest brother,” they added.

While he was a young offender, DPP Lim argued that he should not be given a rehabilitative sentence due to a lack of familial support and supervision.

The man’s lawyers — Mr Josephus Tan and Mr Cory Wong from Invictus Law Corporation, who represented him pro bono from the Criminal Legal Aid Scheme — sought a slightly lower jail sentence with the same number of strokes. 

They argued that the accused’s cooperation with the authorities demonstrated his remorse, and he had committed all his offences before turning 21. 

Mr Tan described the family as “a dysfunctional family at the very baseline”, with the mother not having restrained and educated her son or having protected her daughter.

According to a report by an Institute of Mental Health psychiatrist, the Japanese pornographic cartoons that the accused had watched, which featured incest, led him to think it was all right to have sex with his sister.

For statutory rape, he could have been jailed up to 20 years, fined and caned.