Man jailed 24 years with caning for forcing child siblings to perform sex acts on each other

SINGAPORE — Under the pretext of wanting to bond with his lover’s two young children, a paedophile asked for them to spend nights with him at a hotel.

The 47-year-old man would then force the siblings, a nine-year-old boy and an eight-year-old girl then, to watch pornography and reenact the sexual acts on each other over a period of three years, from 2012 to 2014. Both children have been assessed to have low intelligence.

The former kitchen staff was jailed 24 years and given 24 strokes of the cane on Friday (17 July) after he pleaded guilty to two charges of sexual assault by penetration of a minor under 14 and one charge of abetting the sexual assault of a minor under 14. Another 16 charges, the bulk of which involve him offending against the two children, were taken into consideration for his sentencing.

The man cannot be named to protect the identities of the victims. A diagnosed paedophile, the man has three children and was jailed from 2010 to 2011 for molesting one of them - his then-four-year-old daughter.

Affair with mother, filming lewd acts

He first came to know of the two children through their mother, a cleaner who was the man’s work subordinate. The man and the children’s mother had an affair, but the man continued to have regular dinner with the family – including the children’s father. After a few months, the man asked his lover permission to bring the children out by himself.

The mother agreed as she trusted the man, who then took the children out on meals and visits to the arcade.

He also obtained permission from the mother to have the siblings spend the night with him at Seng Wah Hotel, located in Geylang. Records showed that the man checked into the hotel a total of 24 times between 4 May 2012 and 31 July 2014.

During each sleepover, the man would make the siblings watch pornographic videos and instruct them to re-enact the scenes depicted. As the two siblings were afraid of the man, they complied with his instructions. The man would then film the acts for his own viewing pleasure.

If he was unsatisfied with the recording, the man would make the children repeat the acts. He threatened them with violence to ensure their compliance, and also told the children to keep silent about the incidents and they did.

The acts only stopped after the girl found the courage to tell her mother that she did not wish to meet the man anymore, lying that the man would beat them up. She did not reveal the sexual abuse out of fear and shame that her parents would not believe her.

That was not the end of the offences however. In 2018, the siblings had a chance encounter with the man in his neighbourhood. He gave the siblings his mobile number and the girl, then 14, contacted the man to ask for cigarettes.

Taking advantage of the request, the man told the girl to meet him alone at his apartment, where he made sexual advances on her. The girl agreed to the acts in exchange for money and cigarettes and met him on multiple occasions. She was aware that the man filmed these acts.

Apart from recording the sexual activity, the man obtained three audio files of the girl mimicking the sound of moaning at his request.

Offences exposed in 2019

The offences were exposed last year, after the boy, then around 16, was arrested for theft offences and for engaging in consensual sexual intercourse with a minor.

While undergoing a mandatory psychological assessment at the Institute of Mental Heath, the victim disclosed that he had been sexually abused as a boy. The police were alerted about this allegation and the man was arrested on 30 January last year.

Both the victims underwent psychological assessment and were found to have a low intelligence range. The boy’s IQ placed him within the intellectual disability range.

The girl, when interviewed by psychiatrists, described feeling disgusted and “bad” at what the man had done to her.

She also reported occasionally thinking about what had happened to her and feeling “sad and angry” that her parents might blame her and and her elder brother for the man’s offences. The brother stated that he felt as if he had been “tortured” by the man. He also felt “sad” that he was forced to commit such acts against his sister.

The prosecution sought for the man to be jailed at least 26 years and given 24 strokes of the cane, citing a need to protect children and the man’s high risk of sexual reoffending.

“Undeterred by the 12-month imprisonment term meted out on this conviction (against his daughter), the accused went on to reoffend against the (siblings) less than two years after his release, and even embarked on a further offending spree against (the girl) when he reconnected with her in 2018,” said Deputy Public Prosecutors Eunice Lau and Mark Yeo.

The man’s lawyer, Sofia Bennita, pointed out in mitigation that the man had not taken advantage of the children’s low IQ, nor did he inflict physical harm on them.

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