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Man who fondled and sexually assaulted drunk clubgoer at chalet jailed, caned

COVID-19 precautionary measures being taken at the Supreme Court building on 26 March 2020. (PHOTO: Dhany Osman / Yahoo News Singapore)
File photo of the Supreme Court. PHOTO: Dhany Osman / Yahoo News Singapore)

SINGAPORE — A drunk clubgoer who could not fend for herself was pulled into a car full of men, including three staff from the club she was drinking at.

Three of the five men then took turns to molest her while driving her to a chalet where she was later raped and violated.

One of the men, 28-year-old Tay Boon Huat, had sexually assaulted the woman while she lay inebriated on a bed in the incident in 2018.

Tay was jailed 10 years and three months, and sentenced to five strokes of the cane by the High Court on Wednesday (5 August) after he pleaded guilty to one count of sexual assault by penetration and one count of rioting in an unrelated incident in 2016.

The other four men involved are Yap Chun Chieh, 40; Yong Chun Hong, 31; Gan Soon Chai, 35; and Yeo We Chieng, 40. The woman cannot be named due to a court gag order.

Yap and Yong are managers as well as bouncers at the Club V5 Tycoon, while Gan is a cashier there. Tay and Yeo, who are not employees at the club, are friends of Yong.

All the men are Singaporeans, except Gan who is Malaysian.

Yap and Yong have not been dealt with, while Gan was jailed for one year and three months and fined $20,800 in the State Courts after he filmed the rape at the chalet. He had pleaded guilty to making an obscene video, and having 65 other obscene films and eight films without certification from the Board of Film Censors. Yeo has not been charged in relation to the incident.

The incident occured on 17 September 2018. The day before, Tay had booked a chalet over 16 and 17 September for himself and other employees of Club V5 to use.

After midnight on 17 September, Tay and Yeo drank at Club V5 while waiting for Gan and Yong to finish work.

The victim arrived separately with her group of friends at about 3.35am after consuming alcohol at another club.

She drank more at Club V5 before she and her group of friends got into an altercation outside the club with other clubgoers. Tay was in the latter group.

After the dispute was resolved, the victim’s friends left, leaving her behind. While already intoxicated, she returned to Club V5 with Yong, Yeo and Tay, and continued drinking.

At around 6am, Yong brought the victim, who was by then unable to walk without aid, to the female toilet. He then led her to a male toilet in Ming Arcade, where he spent 15 minutes with her behind closed doors. It was not revealed what Yong did while he was alone with the victim.

About half an hour later, Yong brought the victim to the first floor of the building and handed her over to Yap, instructing him to send her home by taxi. Yap walked the victim to a taxi stand and asked another friend to help book a Grab vehicle for her.

A while later, Tay, Yong, Gan and Yeo decided to return to the chalet after Club V5 had closed. The group boarded Yeo’s car, which drove past the taxi stand. The group then spotted Yap with the victim. Alighting from the car, Yong invited Yap to join them at the chalet before pulling the unconscious victim into the car by her arm.

The group then drove off with the victim seated on Yap’s lap with Yong and Gan flanking him. On the way to the chalet, Tay, who was then in the front passenger seat, reached over and pulled down the unconscious victim’s top, molesting her.

Yap and Yong joined him in the act. According to court documents, Yong told Yap, “You got free f**k, why don’t want?”

The party of six arrived at the chalet at about 7.25am where the victim was placed on a bed. Some 10 minutes later, Tay and Yap undressed the victim and began sexually assaulting her. The victim was unresponsive to the acts.

Unbeknownst to Yap and Tay, Gan, who was lying on another bed in the room, witnessed what the two were doing and filmed the act furtively. He was spotted at some point and stopped by Tay.

After violating the victim, Tay and Yap each spent time with her separately in the toilet. The two then joined Gan outside the chalet, where Tay asked to see Gan’s video. He attempted to delete the recording, but was unsuccessful in doing so.

At 9am, Yap attempted to send the victim home in a taxi. As he could not wake her up, he brought her to a nearby hotel to sleep. There, he molested the victim again.

The victim finally woke at the hotel and was startled to see Yap, who was a stranger to her. She realised her clothes were in a disarray. After Yap woke up, the two left the hotel with the victim paying for the hotel stay.

“When the victim arrived home, she took a bath and threw her underwear away that same night as she felt very disgusted. The victim knew that something had happened to her, but she did not make a police report immediately as she felt very depressed and did not know what to do,” the prosecution said.

Victim returned to Club V5

Later that night, the victim met a friend at Club V5 to talk about what had happened to her. She saw Yap at the club and recognised him but did not confront him then as she wanted to forget about the matter.

On 23 or 24 September 2018, the victim returned to the club with a few other friends to drink when she decided to confront Yap.

During the exchange, Yap told the victim that she was very drunk that night, and that he and three of his colleagues had driven her to a chalet. Yap admitted that “he had sex with her” and apologised to her, according to the prosecution.

“He also told her that he had then re-dressed her and brought her to a hotel room in Geylang to sleep. He insisted that nothing happened in the hotel room,” it added.

He also let the victim check his phone for photographs or videos, but the woman did not find anything related to the incident.

After learning the truth, the victim felt very stressed out and she told him to keep the incident to himself.

After going home that night, the victim confided in her mother, who encouraged her to make a police report. The woman did so that day.

Tay, Yap, Yong, Gan and Yeo were arrested by the police and the video was found in Gan’s phone.

Separately, Tay was involved in a rioting incident outside Club Hollywood at the now-defunct St James Power Station on 10 November 2016. Together with a group of at least four men, Tay attacked a 26-year-old man, with Tay kicking him twice.

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