Blind man who sexually abused stepdaughter, 8, jailed after plea for judicial mercy denied

SINGAPORE — A blind man who sexually assaulted his eight-year-old stepdaughter for a period of 18 months was sentenced to 15 years’ jail and 24 strokes of the cane on Friday (12 July).

This after he had earlier pleaded for judicial mercy, as he is suffering from an advanced stage of glaucoma and is legally blind. In cases where judicial mercy is applied, the court gives a more lenient sentence to the offender due to exceptional circumstances.

But Justice Valerie Thean noted that the facts of the case were “quite serious”, as there was an abuse of trust and a degree of exploitation in the offences.

There was no evidence to suggest that the sentence would be disproportionate in view of the man’s blindness. The prisons would look into his medical care and follow ups for his condition, said the judge, who added there was no exceptional circumstance to exercise judicial mercy.

The prosecution had also noted that staff from the prisons have confirmed they are able to manage the man’s condition and that he would receive the care he requires.

First diagnosed with the condition in 2005, medical documents show that the man defaulted on his follow-up appointment on at least three occasions for a total of seven years.

Severity of the offence

On 2 July, the man, a canteen helper, pleaded guilty to one count of sexual penetration of a girl under the age of 14 and two counts of molesting the same girl.

Both the accused and the victim, who is now 12, cannot be named to protect the latter’s identity.

The 42-year-old man started preying on the girl from the age of 8, even though his wife was pregnant.

“For close to one and a half years, the victim suffered in silence as her ‘Abah’, the man she had come to regard as a second father heartlessly took advantage of her naivety and robbed her of her childhood as he sexually exploited her in the cover of darkness, when he thought she was asleep,” said Deputy Public Prosecutors Kavita Uthrapathy and Amanda Han.

“No child should have to grow up in an environment of fear – yet, the victim spent each day wrestling with feelings of anguish and self-doubt in the belief that her family would not take her side, and reliving the sexual assaults in her mind, day after day, completely alone.”

The man’s lawyer S Kandarajah had asked for eight to 10 years’ jail for his client.

The prosecution sought at least 18 years’ jail and 24 strokes of the cane.

Facts of the case

The man married the victim’s mother in 2013.

The victim slept in a bedroom along with her stepfather, her mother and two step-siblings. On various occasions she would share the same bed as her mother and stepfather – especially when there were thunderstorms, which scared her.

In the first week of January 2015, the man began sexually abusing the victim, who was eight years old at the time. Aroused by the sight of her exposed underwear, he began touching her, thinking she was asleep.

He preyed on her more frequently when her mother fell pregnant in 2015 and the couple became intimate less frequently.

Even though the girl would be woken up by the man’s acts, she would feign sleep out of fear, resisting only occasionally by turning her body away or pushing away his hands.

The sexual abuse continued until the girl revealed the man’s acts to her biological father, whom she would visit on weekends.

On 15 October 2016, as the victim was being brought home by her father, she began crying more hysterically than usual and refused to enter her stepfather’s flat.

The victim’s father felt something was amiss and brought her aside. She revealed what had happened and her father lodged a police report three days later. The man was arrested on the same day at his workplace.

“Upon his arrest, the man told police that he started to notice that the victim was developing physically and saw that she had become ‘curvaceous like a woman’.

He admitted that he fantasised about having sex with the girl but feared taking away her virginity.

For molesting a person under the age of 14, those convicted face a jail term of up to five years along with a possible fine and caning.

For sexual assault by penetrating a person under the age of 14, those convicted face a jail term of between eight and 20 years and with caning or not less than 12 strokes.

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