SINGAPORE: A 52-year-old man was sentenced to 24 years’ jail on Monday (Mar 5) for sexually assaulting and raping his 11-year-old neighbour.
The man, who cannot be named due to a gag order, had known the child since she was born. He was a close family friend and she called him “papa”.
While the victim’s family thought she was at tuition, “papa” would take her to public car parks at Bukit Batok where he had sex with the child in his employer’s car. He worked as a chauffeur at the time.
The abuse lasted for about four months, from October 2010 until January 2011, when the victim confided in a school counsellor.
When he realised he had been found out, the man left his wife and fled to Malaysia, where he remained for five years until his arrest.
He pleaded guilty on Monday to four of nine charges, including three for aggravated rape and one for aggravated sexual assault.
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The High Court heard that the accused and his wife had been close to the victim’s family since before she was born in 1999.
The couple have no children and the man doted on the victim, now 19 years old. He bought her gifts and even paid for some of her tuition classes.
In August 2010, the 11-year-old met someone named “Charles” on Facebook. They became fast friends, and the girl eventually thought of Charles as her boyfriend.
She confided in “papa”, who lied that he was employed by a Caucasian man whose children went to Charles’ school. He offered to “pass messages” to Charles on the girl’s behalf.
“(The accused) preyed on the child’s gullibility (and) pretended to be in contact with Charles”, Deputy Public Prosecutor Kavita Uthrapathy told the court.
“He manipulated the victim … (to) get close to her, obtain her trust and ensure continued access to her,” the prosecutor added.
The first time he sexually assaulted the girl was in August 2010. He led her to a deserted staircase landing on the 12th storey of their block, where he told the child to pull down her shorts and panties.
When she asked what he was doing, he replied that it was “not a crime”. He would repeat this whenever he assaulted her.
The victim would go for tuition every Saturday from 12pm until 2pm.
While on her way to tuition sometime in October 2010, the accused stopped the girl and took her to his car, parked at a public car park nearby.
Thinking he was going to take her shopping, as he had before, the child followed him and got into the back seat.
He told the girl Charles had gotten into an accident at school, and that he had taken him to the doctor.
He comforted the girl, who was “very upset” at the news, said the prosecutor. “Papa” then raped her.
He did the same in the following weeks - picking the girl up before tuition and dropping her off after 2pm so her family would not realise she had skipped class.
The man soon came to an “arrangement” with the victim in order to secretly communicate with her. He would call her home phone and let it ring before hanging up. She would then call him back on his mobile phone.
During this period, he also gave the child a dildo.
CHARLES’ IDENTITY REMAINS UNKNOWN
On Jan 28, 2011, the child started to cry during recess time in school because the accused had told her Charles got into an accident in Kuala Lumpur and was “now suffering in California”.
He promised to take the child to California to visit Charles.
The girl never met Charles in person, and his identity remains a mystery. “(We don’t know) whether Charles exists … (or) whether he is a character that (the accused) invented”, the prosecutor said.
A teacher spotted the girl crying, and encouraged her to see the school counsellor. The girl did, and explained that she was having a “relationship problem”.
She also told the counsellor about “papa”.
The school principal and the girl’s family were notified, and her elder brother lodged a police report.
When he signaled the girl to call him the next day, she told him a police report had been made.
He fled to Malaysia, and later remarried there.
Five years later, in July 2016, his wife ran into him at a temple in Johor Bahru, together with his new wife.
She confronted him and lodged a police report. He was arrested the next day and repatriated to Singapore in September after serving a prison sentence in Malaysia for immigration offences.
On Monday, the prosecutor urged the court to sentence him to at least 21 years’ jail.
“On the one hand, the accused says he deeply regrets the offences and wants to apologise to the victim and her family. Yet in the same breath he states that it was the victim’s mother’s responsibility to have monitored her daughter”, said the prosecutor.
She noted that the accused had said that the child “was 11 years old but had the body of an 18-year-old, and that he had difficulties having sex with his own wife”, the prosecutor added.
“He only deeply regrets … getting caught. His revolting assertions make it clear that he lacks remorse.”
In a statement, the girl, who was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, wrote: “Nothing made me feel better … I was constantly crying and thinking why he would leave Singapore when all the time he reminds me ‘sex is not a crime’ … I told myself I should give up on my dreams and aspirations in life.”
For sexually assaulting and raping the victim, who was under 14 at the time, the man could have been sentenced to eight to 20 years’ jail and 12 strokes of the cane per charge.
As he is above 50, he cannot be caned.
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