Man jailed 30 months for molesting 9-year-old step-granddaughter
A man brazenly molested his then-nine-year-old step-granddaughter on three occasions, even in the presence of the girl’s sisters.
The man, aged 51, was jailed 30 months by the State Courts on Wednesday (7 March) after he pleaded guilty to two counts of using criminal force to outrage modesty and one count of committing an indecent act with a child. An additional charge of committing an indecent act with a child was taken into consideration during sentencing.
All the parties cannot be named to protect the girl’s identity.
The court heard that the man had married the girl’s grandmother, and the girl and her sisters regarded him as their de facto grandfather. The siblings often went over to their grandmother’s home after school.
In the evening of 20 October 2016, the man and the victim were watching television together on the sofa. The man, who was wearing a singlet and boxer shorts, pulled her hand and put it on his groin area over his shorts.
Two days later, while the man was playing ‘catch’ with his granddaughters in the bedroom, he caught the girl from behind and rubbed himself against her buttocks. The man was not aware that the girl’s sister, who was lying on the bed, had observed him doing it.
On 23 October, the man asked the girl to see him in his bedroom. The girl asked her siblings to accompany her into the room.
In the room, the man instructed her to lie on the bed with him under a blanket. Under the blanket, he touched the girl’s private parts over her clothes. He also took her hand and put it on his groin area over his shorts. One of the girl’s sisters noticed movement under the blanket and deduced that her sister was being molested because she had seen it happen before.
She then informed her grandmother on the same day that her grandfather had touched her sister. The victim then made a police report on the same day.
The girl had been afraid to tell her mother and grandmother about the incidents as she was afraid that they would fight and that she would not be allowed to visit her grandmother’s home.
Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Adrianni Marhain sought a total jail term of 30 months, pointing out the “grave abuse of trust” in the situation.
The grandmother’s home was like a second home to them, and the man violated the girl when he should have taken care of her. The acts were also brazen, being committed in full view of the victim’s sisters, said DPP Adrianni.
Noting that the victim was a vulnerable nine-year-old, District Judge Hamidah Ibrahim agreed with the prosecution and sentenced the man to 30 months’ jail, backdating his sentence to the first day of his remand on 20 February. He cannot be caned as he is over 50 years old.
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