Man who sexually abused stepdaughter, posted her nude photos online gets jail, caning
SINGAPORE — A 38-year-old man who sexually assaulted his stepdaughter when she was around 10 years old, and posted her nude photos on an online chat group, was on Monday (25 July) jailed for 11.5 years along with 15 strokes of the cane.
The culprit, who cannot be named to protect the victim's identity, pleaded guilty to three charges: sexual assault, aggravated molest and procuring an indecent act from a child.
Three other charges of sexual assault were considered in sentencing.
Repeatedly assaulted victim since 2017
The man first abused the victim in June 2017 at home. He asked her to perform a sex act on him when she was lying in bed alone in her grandmother's room. Later that same night, he sexually assaulted her again.
The victim, who had treated the man as her own father, was confused and told him that she did not want to do it anymore. She also started avoiding him but did not tell anyone about the incidents, as she was afraid of him and did not want to see her family break up.
Two years later, when the victim was in Secondary 1, the man struck again. In May 2019, he went through her phone while she was sleeping and read her text messages with her boyfriend which indicated that they had sex recently.
The man woke the victim up and confronted her about it. She felt scared, nervous and embarrassed, said Deputy Public Prosecutors Yvonne Poon and Eric Hu.
"The accused told the victim to 'do something' for him or he would tell the victim’s mother. Still at a loss, the victim merely kept quiet," said the prosecutors.
The man then told her to take nude photos of herself in the kitchen toilet and to send them to his mobile phone.
Afterwards, the victim stayed inside the toilet to cry as she was confused and scared.
When she eventually came out, she saw the man standing at the kitchen entrance. He then exposed himself to her and forced her to perform a sex act on him. He also molested her and took a photo of her topless.
Passed victim's boyfriend a condom
Afterwards, the man told the victim to call her boyfriend over. When the latter arrived, the man spoke to the couple then told the boy to use a condom the next time and passed one to him.
The victim told her boyfriend about what happened. He passed her a small multi-purpose tool and a small foldable knife for her protection before she went home.
Later at home that same day, the man assaulted the victim once more, telling her to kneel and perform a sex act on him as he sat on the sofa.
Afterwards, she went to her room and cried. She took out the foldable knife and contemplated using it on herself as she wanted to die, said DPPs Poon and Hu.
Later that day, the victim asked to meet her boyfriend at a void deck. She broke down and told him what happened but reiterated that she did not want to tell her mother as she was afraid of breaking up the family.
Sometime later, the boyfriend went through the victim's Telegram account on her phone and found three nude photos of her in the SG Nasi Lemak chat group. She told him that the man had used her phone to join the chat group.
The boyfriend decided to tell the victim's maternal aunt about the abuse. He met up with the aunt and showed her screenshots he had taken from the chat group. He also handed the information to her in a thumb drive. The aunt then took it to the police.
The aunt also confronted the man over the phone but he was defensive and initially denied any wrongdoing, claiming that he was drunk and could not remember anything.
For his sexual assault charge, the man could have been jailed for up to 20 years.
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