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Man jailed, caned for sexual assault on 18-year-old boy

File photo of Singapore’s State Courts . (Photo: Safhras Khan/Yahoo)
File photo of Singapore’s State Courts . (Photo: Safhras Khan/Yahoo)

A massage became a horrific experience for an 18-year-old boy after he was molested by a former colleague in a toilet of the hotel where they were working in.

The boy, whose name and the hotel’s name cannot be revealed due to a gag order, was so affected that he stopped work shortly after the incident.

The man who molested the boy, Uthaiya Ravinanthan Ramalingam, pleaded guilty to one charge of sexual assault on Wednesday (1 March) before District Judge Jasvender Kaur, and was sentenced to nine months’ jail and three strokes of the cane. The burly 35-year-old Malaysian was accompanied in court by his wife.

Reading from the statement of facts, Deputy Public Prosecutor N K Anitha said that the incident happened on 4 October last year.

Victim was on attachment

The DPP pushed for Uthaiya, who was working as a chef in the staff canteen, to be jailed for at least six months with caning.

The victim was on a six-month attachment at the pastry kitchen of the hotel when the incident happened.

While they were in a changing room getting ready for work, Uthaiya approached the victim and massaged his shoulder for a while and asked if he would like a massage. The victim agreed to it, and the two arranged to meet at the staff canteen during break time.

When the victim finished his lunch at the staff canteen, the accused signalled to the victim to follow him. The victim went with the accused to a staff toilet on the third level of the hotel.

There was no one else in the toilet when the two entered a cubicle. Uthaiya locked the door of the cubicle and asked the victim to stand with his back against the accused, and went on to massage the victim’s shoulders, back and waist.

Uthaiya then hugged the victim from the back before massaging the victim’s legs.

Victim protested to no avail

Uthaiya then directed the victim to unbutton his shirt. When asked why, the accused told the victim to follow his directions. After his victim did so, Uthaiya continued massaging the victim and told him to relax.

Uthaiya then massaged the victim’s chest and stomach area before pulling down the victim’s pants to the knee level. The victim protested and immediately pulled up his pants and questioned the accused.

But Uthaiya pulled down the victim’s pants again. After massaging the victim for a while, he removed the victim’s underwear. He then massaged the victim’s private parts.

The victim was too shocked to react because the accused was burly and they were inside the locked cubicle door.

After massaging for about a minute, Uthaiya squatted and moved his face with his mouth open towards the victim’s private parts. The victim immediately stopped Uthaiya and said he had to return to work.

Uthaiya asked the victim whether he like the experience, and the victim said “No” emphatically and left the cubicle.

Filed a police report

The victim was so affected by the incident that he was unable to work on the same day. Sensing that the victim was unwell, his supervisor sent him home.

The next day, the victim informed his parents and a police report was lodged.

In mitigation, Uthaiya’s lawyer, Ashwin Ganapathy, said that the offence was committed on the spur of the moment. He added that his client was sorry for his actions and pleaded for a jail term of six months.

In passing sentence, Judge Kaur said that the offence was serious and that the massage involved the touching of the victim’s private parts. She said the incident went on for some time and that the victim was traumatised by it.