Paedophile gets jail, caning for sexually abusing goddaughter, 5
SINGAPORE — A 36-year-old man who was entrusted to fetch his primary school goddaughter from school sexually abused her in a public toilet, a court heard.
The perpetrator’s girlfriend found naked photos of the girl, who was between five and six, while going through his computer and made a police report.
At the State Courts on Monday (10 February), the man was jailed for five years along with six strokes of the cane.
The man pleaded guilty to one charge each of aggravated molestation and committing an obscene act with a child. He and the girl cannot be named due to a gag order imposed by the court.
Abused victim in toilet
The man was friends with the victim’s father. He would fetch her from school and sometimes bought food for her before sending her home.
Sometime in 2015, after he had picked her up from school, the man brought her to Toa Payoh Hub. When he felt the urge to urinate, he brought the girl into a handicapped toilet with him.
After he had relieved himself, the man suddenly became sexually aroused and felt the urge to masturbate, Deputy Public Prosecutor Colin Ng told the court. The culprit asked the girl to undress and took a photo of her while she sat on the toilet bowl with her legs spread apart.
The perpetrator then touched and took two close-up photos of the girl’s private parts. He then masturbated himself.
“Throughout the entire ordeal, the victim kept quiet as she did not comprehend the nature of the accused’s actions,” said DPP Ng.
“The accused kept the three photos so that he could masturbate to them. He also copied the photos onto a hard disk belonging to him,” the prosecutor added.
Girlfriend found photos
Two years later, in May 2017, the man’s 38-year-old girlfriend was going through his computer when she came across the photos. She recognised the victim’s face in the first photo and the man’s fingers in the close-up photos and confronted him, demanding that he delete them. However, the culprit refused to do so.
The girlfriend then told the victim’s parents about the matter. They didn’t believe her at first, but became furious when she sent them the photos.
The victim’s father wanted to make a police report but the accused begged him not to do so. The father also decided against making a report to protect his daughter’s privacy.
However, the perpetrator’s girlfriend went ahead to make a police report. When the culprit found out about it, he deleted the photos and threw away the hard disk.
In asking for the jail term that was meted out, DPP Ng pointed out that the man was previously fined for masturbating along a corridor when he saw two young girls below 10.
A report from the Institute of Mental Health also stated that the paedophile has a high risk of reoffending.
The maximum punishment for using criminal force to outrage the modesty of a child below 14 is up to five years’ jail along with a fine and caning.
For committing an obscene act with a child, the maximum penalty is a fine of up to $10,000 and up to five years’ jail, for a first-time offender. Repeat offenders face a fine of up to $20,000 and up to seven years’ jail.
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