Man who repeatedly molested young daughter gets 3 years 8 months' jail, 9 strokes
SINGAPORE — A man convicted of molesting his adolescent daughter by rubbing his genitals on her was sentenced to three years and eight months’ jail along with nine strokes of the cane on Wednesday (25 September).
Following a trial, the 40-year-old man was convicted of four counts of molesting his biological daughter by rubbing his penis on her buttocks on four different occasions between 13 September 2015 to 12 October 2016.
While three of the occasions involved skin to skin contact, one occasion was over the girl’s clothing. The victim was aged between 12 and 13 at the time of the offences.
None of the parties involved in the case can be named to protect the girl’s identity.
Family backtracked on police statements
The victim, who is now 16, along with her mother and her brother had initially given statements to the police incriminating the man. At trial, however, they sought to distance themselves from the statements.
Deputy Public Prosecutors Yvonne Poon and Tan Zhongshan pointed out the inconsistencies in the trio’s attempts to explain away the incriminating portions of the statement. They noted that all three had strong motives to lie to protect the man.
The victim had also testified that she loved the man and did not want anything bad to happen to him. Meanwhile, her brother claimed that he had a good relationship with the man, and worried about what would happen to the man as a result of the court case.
The man’s wife also spoke of her love for the man, as well as her willingness to forgive him and to “move on”.
The prosecution urged the court to accept the statements that were made to the police about the four occasions of molest.
Four incidents
According police statements made by all the parties involved, the victim’s grandmother had witnessed the girl and the father spending time together in their home’s master bedroom on 13 September 2015.
After the girl left the room, the man emerged holding a plastic bag in his hand. The grandmother also said the girl later complained of feeling sore around her buttocks.
When the mother asked the victim if her father had touched her, the girl nodded and added that her father had wiped her clean after the act and had thrown the tissue into the plastic bag.
The mother confronted her husband the next day, during which the latter cried and asked for forgiveness.
On 30 September 2016, the man asked the victim to enter the master bedroom. He then rubbed himself on her while they were both fully clothed.
Regarding this incident, the victim’s grandmother also gave evidence that she had seen a “wet area” at the back of the victim’s pants, which she identified as semen.
The man also called the girl into the master bedroom on 10 October 2016. As the two lay on the bed, he stated that he “started to feel horny again” and then molested the girl – who later told her mother about the incident.
On 12 October 2016, the girl had been in the bedroom with her brother and father when the man removed his jeans and told the brother to leave the room. He then molested the victim for about five minutes.
The girl told her mother about the incident and her grandmother lodged a police report against her son-in-law.
Later that day, three police officers visited the flat to speak to the victim and her father. When the mother arrived home, she asked her husband to swear on the Quran that he had never molested their daughter.
The man was later arrested. Investigations found the man’s DNA on the girl’s panties and her lower back.
For molesting a person under the age of 14, the man could have been jailed up to five years, fined, or caned, or received any combination of the punishments on each count.
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