SINGAPORE — A 69-year-old man was sentenced to two years and three months’ jail on Tuesday (May 25) after he was found guilty of molesting a five-year-old girl in his home.

Tan Wee Tim had touched the girl’s private parts when his wife was in the kitchen while babysitting her.

The girl later returned home and confided in her mother that an “uncle” had touched her “many times”. She had wanted to visit the nanny again after her parents made a police report but then told her mother: “There is a monster there.”

Tan, a Singaporean, claimed trial to a single aggravated molestation charge but was convicted earlier last month. His defence was that he had no opportunity to commit the offence.

His jail sentence is inclusive of one month in lieu of three strokes of the cane, as offenders aged 50 or above cannot be caned under the law.

The girl, who cannot be named due to a court order to protect her identity, was in kindergarten when she was molested on the afternoon of April 12, 2019.

Her mother testified during the trial that she hired Tan’s wife — whom they called “Ah Kuan aunty” — in September 2018 after seeing her advertisement on the Gumtree website. 

To protect her daughter from being taken advantage of by boys, the mother said that she wanted a nanny who did not have sons. Ah Kuan had an adult daughter. 

When Ah Kuan explained that Tan would be home and was a retiree, the girl’s mother felt all right with this as he seemed like a “grandfather figure”.

After the girl’s father also visited Ah Kuan’s home, they decided to hire her.

Ah Kuan would pick the girl up from kindergarten at 11.30am and take care of her till about 7pm when her mother finished work. The nanny also provided the girl with meals and took her to enrichment classes.

On the evening of the incident, the girl’s mother testified that she was late picking her daughter up due to a work appointment.

When the mother and daughter eventually got home, she asked the girl what she and “uncle” were doing earlier. 

She said that her daughter then fell unusually quiet and remained silent despite her repeating the question. When the girl eventually revealed what had happened, the mother “felt very angry” and “heart pain”.

She said that when she asked her daughter why she did not move away, the girl responded that she walked around the living room “but uncle kept following her”.

“I asked her, 'Is this the first time uncle touched you'? She said many times,” the mother testified in tears.

"I think she felt it was her fault, that if she told me, I would scold her. I gave her assurance, I told her it’s not her fault. I thanked her for telling me so I could protect her.”

The girl gave evidence in court that after the molestation, Tan told her in Mandarin not to tell her mother.

If convicted of molesting a minor, Tan could be jailed up to five years or fined, or both. Offenders can receive caning but those aged 50 and above cannot be caned by law.