Man who raped and sexually assaulted niece’s maid jailed 10.5 years
He made sexual advances on an Indonesian maid who was working for his niece.
While the 53-year-old Singaporean man was alone with the 26-year-old maid in his niece’s flat, he took the opportunity to rape her.
The man, who worked as a security guard, was jailed for 10 and a half years in the High Court on Monday (18 March) after he pleaded guilty to one count of sexual assault by penetration and one count of raping the maid. One count of sexual assault by penetration and one count of molest were taken into consideration during sentencing.
The maid, who cannot be named to protect her identity, came to work in Singapore on 6 June 2016. She worked for the man’s niece from 24 June 2016 till 18 November 2017.
The man stayed in Johor Bahru but travelled to Singapore daily for work, where he would stay in his niece’s two-bedroom flat. The maid, who is divorced with a three-year-old daughter in Indonesia, treated the man as her employer.
On several occasions, the man confessed his feelings for the maid and wanted to marry her. But the maid rejected him, lying to him that she was married.
Unable to gain her affection, the man resorted to stroking the maid’s hair and squeezing her buttocks when no one else was present in the flat. On some occasions, the maid threatened to tell the man’s niece about his conduct but did not do so as she thought her employer wouldn’t believe her.
On the morning of 18 November 2017, the maid was alone with the man in the flat when he emerged from a toilet with only a towel wrapped around his waist.
The man hugged the maid from behind while she was mopping the floor. The maid struggled but the man refused to let her go. She eventually elbowed the man and escaped to the living room.
Later in the morning, the maid asked the man if she could use a tube of muscle rub that she saw on a table. He used the request as a pretext to forcibly apply the rub on her back from inside her clothes.
The man then overpowered the petite-sized maid and forced her onto a bed. He undressed and sexually assaulted her, causing her pain.
Without using protection, the man raped the woman. After noticing that his fingers were bloody, he wiped the maid’s private parts with a towel.
The maid, who noticed blood in her urine, texted her sister-in-law. The latter sought help from the Indonesian embassy in Singapore.
“To her mind, this was the last straw. She was fearful that the accused would repeat his sexual assaults if she remained in the flat,” said Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Raja Mohan.
The man tried to persuade the maid not to tell his niece about the incident by offering her a pair of earrings. The maid initially took the earrings, hoping that the man would stop bothering her, but she later returned them to him.
The maid managed to escape from the flat while the man was sleeping. She later reported the incident to the police. The man was arrested later that evening.
During investigations, the man claimed to have erectile dysfunction for many years. However, a doctor testified it was possible for the man to have a sustained erection at the time of the offences.
DPP Mohan sought a sentence of at least 11 years’ jail and four to five months’ jail in lieu of 10 strokes of the cane. The man cannot be caned as he is above 50 years old.
“The accused…completely violated the victim’s basic right to feel safe in her home in Singapore, leaving her woefully defenceless and helpless,” said the DPP.
The man’s lawyer, Kalidass Murugaiyan, asked for about 10 years’ jail for his client.
“We are instructed the (man) has had experiences where he encountered a supernatural entity in the course of his work as a security guard. He firmly believes that he was spiritually disturbed at the time of the offences,” the defence lawyer told the court.
The man could have been jailed up to 20 years and fined or caned for each offence of rape or sexual assault.
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