Man who made false report over sex with sister jailed 2 weeks
Looking to get his elder sister in trouble, a 25-year-old man told the police that he had sex with her when he was 16 years old.
The Singaporean, who cannot be named to protect his sister’s identity, lied to the authorities as he was unhappy that his sister was causing trouble at home. This was his second time implicating his sister in a false police report.
As a result, the sister, now 27, was investigated by the police for incest and had to attend four police interviews in March, April, May and September last year.
For his actions, the man was sentenced to two weeks’ jail at the State Courts on Thursday (4 January) after he pleaded guilty to two charges of lodging false police reports. Another three similar charges were taken into consideration for his sentencing.
At about 4am on 31 March last year, the man lodged a police report at Sembawang Neighbourhood Police Centre alleging that his elder sister had threatened his fiancée with a knife. The man’s fiancée had accompanied him to the police station.
He claimed that when his fiancée went to his flat to collect her belongings the day before, his sister had confronted the fiancée and expressed unhappiness with the woman’s presence. According to the man, his sister then pointed a kitchen knife at the fiancée, threatening to kill her if she did not leave the home.
Investigations brought the false information to light as the police discovered that the fiancée had not gone to the flat on 30 March. The man later confessed that he lodged a false police report as his sister objected to his relationship with his fiancée.
The man’s fiancée, who has also been charged for making a false police report, has not been dealt with yet by the court.
The second incident occured barely hours after the man lodged his first police report.
At around 8.22am on 31 March, the man’s fiancée called the police alleging that the man’s ex-girlfriend, with whom he has a two-year-old daughter, was “making problem” at the man’s flat.
When the police arrived at the scene, the ex-girlfriend, fiancée and the man’s parents were found squabbling. A while later, the man and his fiancée left with the police for the block’s void deck, where he told an officer that he had sex with his sister when he was 16 years old.
The officer interviewed the man alone, during which he repeated the falsehood, adding that the act took place in the sister’s bedroom. The police later commenced investigations against the sister for incest.
The man admitted on 19 October last year that he had given false information to the police to inconvenience his sister. The man had done so as he wanted to get his sister into trouble for causing trouble at home.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Claire Poh, who sought a jail sentence of no less than three weeks, said that “apart from being scandalised”, the sister had to attend interviews at the police station.
DPP Poh said that the man offences were “motivated by a degree of malice”. She added that the man had “canoodled” with his fiancée to make the first false report.
The man’s lawyer Michael Chang, who was assigned by the Criminal Legal Aid Scheme, disagreed that his client’s actions were driven by malice. Asking for a “short custodial sentence”, the lawyer cited an Institute of Mental Health report that diagnosed the man as having a mild intellectual disability.
District Judge Eddy Tham said that the false allegations were “serious” and would have caused “great embarrassment” to the victim.
For giving false information to the police and causing them to act on it, the man could have been jailed up to a year and/or fined up to $5,000 on each count.
More Singapore stories:
