Man who sexually assaulted woman in HDB lift gets jail, caning

SINGAPORE — A 35-year-old man tailed a woman into a lift at a HDB block in the early hours of the morning and inflicted a violent sexual assault on her for seven minutes, the High Court heard on Tuesday (24 March).

The 32-year-old victim resisted and struggled with the perpetrator, begging with him not to touch her. But her pleas fell on deaf ears.

When the victim crawled out of the lift, the culprit hit her head and pulled her hair so forcefully that clumps of hair were torn from her scalp. He choked the crying victim, and forced her to perform oral sex on him.

The entire ordeal was captured by the lift’s CCTV camera.

For his offences, Mohammad Fadil Othman was sentenced to 11-and-a-half years’ jail along with 12 strokes of the cane. He pleaded guilty to one charge of aggravated sexual assault by penetration.

Culprit loitered at void deck

The victim, a Chinese national, met some friends for drinks at a Jalan Besar coffee shop on 20 April last year. A friend gave her a lift to her home to her HDB block in the early hours the next morning.

The victim had come to Singapore just five days before the incident. Her details cannot be revealed to protect her identity.

Fadil had been loitering “around the area as he had nothing else to do”, said Deputy Public Prosecutors Joshua Lim and Grace Teo in the prosecution’s statement of facts. He had seen some females walking in the area and “had the sudden urge to have sex with them”, the prosecutors said.

But Fadil did not approach the women he saw earlier and just sat on a bench. When the victim walked past him, he assumed that she was drunk.

“He found her to be attractive and sexy. At that point, he formed the intention to have sex with her and targeted her. He thought she would be unable to identify him as a result of being intoxicated,” the DPPs said.

Culprit assaulted victim

At around 3.20am, Fadil tailed the victim into the lift and stood behind her. He pressed the button for a lower floor than hers. The moment the lift doors closed, he grabbed and groped her.

She resisted and struggled but could not overpower him. She also begged him not to touch her.

“The accused understood her pleas, but persisted. He admitted that the more she said ‘no’, the more he felt he had to touch her,” said DPPs Lim and Teo.

When the lift doors opened, the victim tried to crawl out of the lift but Fadil crouched over her back and hit her on the back and head. He then pulled her hair so forcefully that hair was torn from her scalp. Policemen later found clumps of her hair at the lift landing on that floor.

Fadil also choked the victim with his hands. When she started crying, he pulled his pants down and pushed the victim’s head towards his private parts but she resisted.

Undeterred, the perpetrator pushed the victim back into the lift, restrained her and pressed the button for a higher floor. The prosecutors said that in order to “instil fear in her” and to make her stop resisting, Fadil “choked her and then covered her mouth with his hands”.

When the lift doors opened, the victim tried to escape by holding the door open with her right hand. Her back was against the wall and Fadil’s hand was still over her mouth. She managed to get out, but the culprit restrained her outside the lift.

He grabbed her by the shoulders and blocked her path. Once more, the victim knelt down at a corner of the lift lobby and begged to be let go. Instead, Fadil pulled his pants down again and tried to lift up her dress, but she resisted. He then forced her to perform oral sex on him.

Afterwards, the culprit looked at the victim, put his finger to his lips to tell her to be quiet and went towards another lift lobby.

Victim diagnosed with PTSD

The victim took the lift to the first floor and called a friend, who said he would bring her to a police station and told her to retrieve her passport while he made his way to her block. At the void deck shortly after, the victim and her friend ran into policemen who were attending to an unrelated case.

Fadil was arrested at 9.30pm the same day and has been remanded since 22 April last year.

The victim was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in the aftermath of the incident. Among other things, she suffers from fear, anxiety, hyper-vigilance and sleep difficulties. She was referred by a psychiatrist to a psychologist for therapy and was also given antidepressant medication.

In asking for 12 years’ jail with 12 strokes of the cane, the prosecutors said, “Women in Singapore have the right to go about unmolested, and to go home without worrying that they would be sexually assaulted in their neighbourhood. The accused’s seven minutes of sexual gratification will haunt the victim for an immeasurably longer time.”

For his aggravated sexual assault by penetration charge, Fadil faced a jail term of between eight and 20 years, with at least 12 strokes of the cane.

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