Man on trial for alleged sexual offences against son's 9-year-old classmate
A senior executive working in Singapore stands accused of sexually assaulting his son’s classmate while he was staying over at the man’s house following a Halloween party.
The 47-year-old foreign national allegedly abused the then nine-year-old victim in 2015, while the latter was sleeping in the same room as the man’s younger son.
At the High Court on Tuesday (3 October), the man – who is married with three sons – pleaded not guilty to one charge of aggravated molest and two counts of sexual assault by penetration of a person below 14 years old. All parties cannot be named to protect the victim’s identity.
In the prosecution’s opening address, Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Christina Koh said that the alleged incident took place on 31 October 2015, which is when the victim attended a Halloween party and then slept over at the accused’s home at the invitation of the man and his wife.
After some games and trick-or-treating with the man’s son and several other friends, the victim returned to the man’s home at around 9pm. An hour-and-a-half later, the man told the victim and his son to go to bed, and both went to the son’s room, which had a bunk bed. The victim took the upper bunk while the accused’s son slept on the bottom bunk.
While the victim lay awake around 11.15pm, the man allegedly entered the bedroom. The victim feigned sleep and saw the man approach the bunk bed. The man then stepped on the lower bunk bed and checked on both boys. After being assured that both were sound asleep, the man allegedly pulled the victim’s left kneecap towards him.
The man then allegedly molested the victim from outside his shorts before pulling down the boy’s shorts to touch him. The man then left the room but returned and performed oral sex on the boy. He left the room again and later returned to abuse the victim once more. Afterwards, the man pulled up the victim’s shorts and left the room.
The victim then decided to leave the house. The boy packed his belongings and went to the man’s bedroom where he saw the man using his laptop. He told the man that he wanted to return home as he felt unwell. The man’s wife then helped the victim contact his father who later picked the boy up from the man’s house.
The victim’s father had earlier said that his son “did not look normal” when he arrived at the man’s house and was eager to leave, said DPP Koh. As the victim stepped into the car, he revealed to his father what had happened but only after making the latter promise not to tell anyone about the incident. The victim’s father then alighted from the car to confront the accused man, while the victim crouched on the car’s floorboard.
An argument broke out between the victim’s father and the accused, with the latter denying the boy’s allegations. The accused man claimed that he had been using his computer in his room the whole time. The victim’s father later left the man’s house to tend to his son. He contacted his wife, who was in New York at the time, and the school’s counsellor before lodging a police report on 2 November.
The prosecution will also submit forensic evidence to show that the lower bunk of the bunk bed that the man’s son had slept on was able to withstand the man’s weight, said DPP Koh. Evidence will also show that the man’s height made it possible for him to have reached the boy.
According to media reports, the victim’s clothes were not tested for DNA evidence as they had been washed by the victim’s father before the police report was made. The prosecution will call 10 witnesses to the stand, including the victim and his parents, who will testify in a closed-door hearing. The man is represented by lawyer Selva K Naidu.
If convicted, the man faces a jail term of between eight and 20 years for sexual assault by penetration and at least 12 strokes of the cane on each charge. He could be also jailed up to five years and/or fined and/or caned for aggravated molestation.
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