SINGAPORE – After he was arrested for filming a woman in the shower in 2024, a young man confessed to his father that he had committed sexual offences against his younger half-sister.
The father called the National Anti-Violence and Sexual Harassment hotline to seek assistance and a child protection officer later made a police report regarding the abuse.
The girl, who was between eight and nine years old when she was sexually assaulted, has the same biological father as the offender.
On Nov 11, the offender, who is now 24 years old, was sentenced to 17 years’ jail and 24 strokes of the cane.
He pleaded guilty to five charges: aggravated rape, aggravated sexual assault by penetration, aggravated outrage of modesty, producing child sexual abuse materials and voyeurism.
Nine other charges were considered during sentencing.
The man committed sexual offences against his sister between 2022 and 2023, when he was 19 to 20 years old.
He cannot be named due to a gag order to prevent the victims from being identified.
In sentencing, Justice Mavis Chionh said he had committed multiple offences for a period of at least one year, and that his criminal behaviour was not a one-off incident due to youthful folly.
The judge noted that the sister experienced suicidal thoughts and recurrent nightmares, and found it difficult to trust others.
The victim’s father also reported that she started peeling skin off her fingers, using vulgarities and became more rebellious, said the judge.
The court was earlier told that the girl lived with her parents, older brother, and domestic helper in an HDB flat. The offender lived elsewhere with his grandmother.
In 2022, he started tutoring the victim and her brother, and stayed over in their bedroom on weekends.
On one occasion, he molested the victim as she was about to fall asleep on the lower deck of a bunk bed.
On other occasions, when she was playing mobile games in her room, he raped her and sexually assaulted her.
Once, he entered the toilet while she was showering, watched her and took two photos of her naked.
The sexual offences against his sister came to an end when he stopped visiting her flat.
On Jan 22, 2024, when he was 21 years old, he used his phone to record a video of his girlfriend’s flatmate, a 23-year-old student, while she was showering.
The police were called, and he was arrested the next day.
On Nov 11, the man’s lawyer Sofia Bakhash told the court that he was pursuing university studies on a scholarship.
She added that he had shown great remorse by coming clean to his father and pleading guilty.
After he was sentenced, the lawyer sought a deferment so that he can spend time with his grandmother and help her with matters relating to the estate of a relative who recently died.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Yee Jia Rong sought an increase in bail from $80,000 to $120,000.
The man’s grandmother, who is his bailor, agreed to continue standing bail for him.
The judge increased bail to $120,000 and ordered the man to surrender at the State Courts on Dec 11.