'Living hell': Father who raped 3 daughters jailed more than 33 years, to be caned
SINGAPORE — A father of seven who sexually abused four daughters, raping three of them, and ill-treated a son was sentenced to 33 years, two months jail and 24 strokes of the cane on Friday (18 March).
This includes a seven-month jail term in lieu of 36 strokes of the cane, which cannot be imposed on the man as 24 strokes is the statutory maximum.
In passing the sentence, Justice Tan Siong Thye described the case as “one of the worst cases of rape and sexual assault by penetration”. The man had taken complete advantage of his daughters to satisfy his sexual perversion over a prolonged period.
"To the children, the home is the haven where there is parental love, warmth, security, protection, solace, peace, harmony and equanimity. The accused destroyed the cherished values of the victims’ sanctuary and turned their home into a living hell," said the judge.
The man’s abuse of his children “(paints) a disturbing and tragic picture of the physical domination the accused enjoyed over the rest of his family,” he added.
The man, a 45-year-old freelance instructor for children camps, earlier pleaded guilty to seven charges in the High Court on 7 March, including aggravated rape, aggravated sexual assault by penetration, aggravated molest and ill-treating a child. All these charges were for offences committed against one daughter, who was around 10 when the offences began, and is now 16.
Of his seven children, a son, 23 and a daughter, 24, are from a previous marriage. He has five children with his current wife. These comprise four girls aged 12 to 19, and a 15-year-old boy. None can be named to protect the victims’ identities.
Another 26 charges which will be taken into consideration for his sentencing are for offences against his other three daughters, his son and his wife, 41. These include instigating his wife to persuade their daughter to provide false information to the police to exculpate him from the sexual offences, and assaulting his wife.
'No sentencing discount'
The prosecution had sought 32 years’ jail and 24 strokes for the man, while his lawyer Ng Pei Qi from the Criminal Legal Aid Scheme sought 26 to 28 years’ jail with the same number of cane strokes.
Ng said that even if there was overwhelming evidence against an offender, he should still be given significant mitigating weight if he pleaded guilty, as he would have spared the victim the pain from reliving the incident.
However, Justice Tan ruled that no “sentencing discount” ought to be given to the man as he had sought to pervert the course of justice after suspecting that his daughters went to the police. He had searched for ways to pass a lie detection test and was going to deny the charges.
This brought to mind how he had told his wife to persuade one of the girls to lie about the sexual assault in 2015, so that he could be exculpated, said the judge. He got away with the offence in 2015 and hoped to do the same in 2018.
He was even prepared to maintain his innocence until he realised the “avalanche of evidence" against him, noted Justice Tan.
Denied children food for days
On 1 September 2018, angry at two of his daughters for bringing their two younger siblings to the playground before they finished their chores, the man denied the four children food for the next four days.
He threw away all the food in the house and forbade his wife from cooking. He tied the large bottles of water in the refrigerator to prevent his children from getting at them, while bringing the rest of family to dine out.
For four days, the four children lived on tap water and food smuggled to them, such as packets of chicken rice from their mother, who also hid biscuits and potato chips in their letterbox.
Sexual abuse of daughter
From 2008, the man lived with his family at a flat in Ang Mo Kio before moving to a flat in Canberra in November 2017. Between 2016 and 2018, the main victim was sexually abused by the man, usually at night when his wife was away at work.
From 2018, he threatened to pull the girl from school if she did not have sex with him everyday. This scared the girl, who thought that she would be abused by him even more. She did not tell anyone about the acts as she feared that nobody would believe her.
In 2018, the man also conducted “body checks” on this girl, then between 12 and 13, and her two elder sisters, then aged 14 to 16 years old.
He engaged in a sexual act with the youngest girl, pretending to clean her genitals, before taking a photo of her. He then showed each of the three girls the photo he took, and instructed them on “how to clean” up properly after their periods. He repeated the same act that year, also ostensibly to teach the girls how to clean themselves properly.
On the last occasion, the man sexually assaulted the main victim in the master bedroom toilet on 16 November 2018. Her two older sisters asked her what had happened, as they found it strange that she had showered in the master bedroom toilet.
The girl tearfully confided in her siblings about the sexual abuse. One sister convinced the girl to lodge a police report and they decided to go to a distant police station, so that they would not be found by the man.
They left after midnight on 17 November 2018 on the pretext of throwing rubbish. The girl was later conveyed to hospital where she stayed for a week, before moving to a children’s home for two weeks.
The man looked for his two daughters at three different police stations after they left, but could not find them. He then surfed ten different websites on how to pass a lie detector test. He was arrested on 1.40pm that day and assessed to be mentally sound and without sexual perversions.
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