Part-time musician gets 10 years' jail, 6 strokes of the cane for statutory rape

SINGAPORE — A part-time Singaporean musician plied a 12-year-old girl with alcohol in his office before having sex with her in 2015, a court heard.

The perpetrator’s elder brother, who was in a long-term relationship with the girl’s mother, was shocked to find them drinking beer the next morning and to see love bites on her neck. He called the police.

At the High Court on Tuesday (28 May), the perpetrator, now 39, was jailed for 10 years and given six strokes of the cane after he pleaded guilty to one charge of statutory rape.

Another count of the same and one charge of sexual penetration of a minor was considered in sentencing.

The jail term will commence once the man completes his current jail term of seven years and six months with six strokes of the cane for drug consumption, which was imposed in June 2017 and took effect from December 2015.

The man cannot be named in order to protect the identity of the victim.

Victim ran away from home

The perpetrator is a divorcee with two children. He got to know the victim when she was around 7 years old.

Sometime in mid-2015, the perpetrator and the victim got closer and chatted over the phone often, unknown to both the victim’s mother and the perpetrator’s brother, said Deputy Public Prosecutors (DPPs) James Chew and Ho Jiayun.

On 21 September 2015, the victim ran away from home. A friend saw her near Boon Keng and told the victim’s mother, who made a missing persons report.

The victim’s mother, her boyfriend and the perpetrator later found the victim and the mother called the police. Officers spoke to the mother and daughter and told the mother to bring the child to the police station the next day for an interview.

But the victim told the perpetrator privately that she did not want to go home with her mother.

The perpetrator then told the victim’s mother that he was hungry and going to McDonald’s for supper. When the victim told her mother that she was also hungry, the mother told the victim to follow the perpetrator and to wait for her.

Later, when the victim’s mother and her boyfriend went to the McDonald’s outlet, they couldn’t find the victim and the perpetrator. The victim had also switched off her mobile phone. It was already past midnight and the mother and her boyfriend decided to return home.

Victim’s mother trusted perpetrator

Later that day, at about 2.25pm, policemen found the victim and the perpetrator near Bukit Gombak and called her mother, who requested that the officers arrest the victim.

But the perpetrator requested to speak to her mother and told her not to worry as the victim was safe and that he would bring her home.

“The victim’s mother then told the accused that she trusted him as he was her future brother-in-law, and she asked the police officers to let them go,” said the DPPs.

The victim’s mother and her boyfriend went back home to wait for her but she didn’t return. They also could not reach the perpetrator on his mobile phone.

Perpetrator bought victim beer

That night, the perpetrator brought the victim to his office. He had bought some alcohol and they drank the beer together before engaging in intimate acts and having unprotected sex.

The next morning, on 23 September 2015, the perpetrator went out to buy beer again. He drank beer with the victim and had sex with her again at his office.

That morning, the victim’s mother lodged a police report against the perpetrator while her boyfriend went out to find both the victim and the perpetrator.

At about 11am, the mother’s boyfriend found them at the perpetrator’s office. The boyfriend “was shocked to see them drinking beer together, and suspected that they had engaged in sexual acts when he noticed love bites on the victim’s neck”, said the DPPs.

The boyfriend then called the victim’s mother and the police.

The sexual acts came to light after the victim was brought back to Geylang Neighbourhood Police Centre for an interview.

The maximum punishment for having sex with a minor under 14, whether with or without her consent, is up to 20 years’ jail, along with a fine and caning.

More Singapore stories:

Nine new gardens to tell rich history of Fort Canning Park

Construction company charged for operating drone without a license

Inspiring lifelong passion in learning mother tongue is key emphasis among new LEP schools

Language Elective Programme to be introduced in selected secondary schools from 2020: Ong Ye Kung