Man who raped daughter at knifepoint twice jailed 32 years
SINGAPORE — A father who raped his daughter twice at knifepoint and later accused her of seducing him multiple times during his trial was sentenced to 32 years’ jail on Monday (27 July).
In sentencing the 53-year-old, Justice Hoo Sheau Peng said that there were no mitigating factors in the case, where a father had abused the trust given to him by his then 23-year-old daughter.
The judge noted that there was a level of premeditation and planning, given that the man, then 48, had locked the flat, kept her mobile phone away and armed himself with a penknife.
The judge considered the persistence of the assault and the deliberate infliction of special trauma to the victim, who contemplated suicide in the immediate aftermath of the incident on 27 March 2016 and was later diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder. The judge also named the use of violence and threats as another aggravating factor.
Justice Hoo also considered the man’s criminal history, where he was previously convicted of attempted murder in 2000 and robbery with hurt in 2010. He was sentenced to 10 years’ jail and 12 strokes of the cane for the former offences and jailed six years and given 24 strokes of the cane for the latter offence.
“The accused has not learned from his previous brushes with the law, and the lengthy sentences he had served,” she noted.
On the day of the incident, after a drinking session with her father, the woman fell asleep and woke up to a touch on her genitals. She opened her eyes to see her father standing by her bed fully naked, with a hand on her vagina and another holding a penknife to her neck.
He then molested her, forced her to perform sexual acts, sexually assaulted her and raped her twice. After she managed to escape, she told her boyfriend and brother about her ordeal and filed a police report on the same day.
The father was convicted after a trial where he contested nine charges, including aggravated rape, aggravated sexual assault by penetration, aggravated molest, criminal intimidation and voluntarily causing hurt.
He argued as part of his defence that his daughter had been seducing him during the night of the incident as well as several nights before that, with his lawyer Lau Wen Jin arguing for the rape charge to be amended to incest.
The father argued in his case that his daughter had been the one to make sexual advances against him and that he gave in as he knew his daughter would be angry otherwise.
The man, who has a younger daughter and a son, said while the victim had shown love for him, she had a drug and alcohol problem.
In mitigating for his client, Lau said that abuse of trust was not applicable here as the victim was an adult at the time and that her father was not in a position of responsibility. He said that his client should be jailed for 28 years.
The prosecution on the other hand sought a jail term of 36 years and four strokes of the cane as the man had grossly violated the trust his biological daughter had placed in him.
“At trial, he made numerous scandalous assertions about the victim in an attempt to humiliate and discredit her. These factors, together with the offender’s dark and appalling criminal history and obvious risk of recidivism, merit a sentence that is firmly punitive and deterrent,” said Deputy Public Prosecutors Kavita Uthrapathy, Ng Yiwen and Sarah Siaw.
The victim and her father had a “very close” relationship, with the woman feeling that her father had “always been there for her”.
She described herself as her father’s “pet”, and had visited him during his previous prison stints, even persuading her mother to let him stay with them after his release in March 2016.
“Within the month however, the man repaid her trust, love and concern by abusing her horrifically within the victim’s own home,” said the prosecution.
“The offender subjected his daughter to a horrific and sustained sexual assault at knifepoint, for which he evidently feels no remorse whatsoever,” they added.
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