Prosecution seeks preventive detention for recalcitrant paedophile, 57, who sexually assaulted boy

He has a long criminal record stretching back to 1988 when he was 26 for various crimes including molest, theft and criminal intimidation.

The 57-year-old man also received seven years’ preventive detention in 1996 for sexually violating two 10-year-old boys.

Barely a year after Sanusi Ahmad was last released from prison – for molesting a 29-year-old woman and threatening her with a knife – the cleaner sexually assaulted an eight-year-old boy with learning difficulty in a flat.

At the High Court on Wednesday (13 February), Sanusi pleaded guilty to one charge of sexual penetration of a person under 14.

Five other charges will be considered in his sentencing at a later date.

Deputy Public Prosecutors Yvonne Poon and Eunice Lau asked Justice See Kee Oon that the diagnosed paedophile and “menace to society” be “taken out of circulation” with no less than 12 years’ preventive detention to protect the public.

Preventive detention is a sentencing option meant to protect the public from recalcitrant offenders, who must serve the jail term in full with no reduction for good behaviour.

Accused assaulted boy while mother was asleep

Sanusi was acquainted with the victim’s mother who allowed him to visit their home whenever he wasn’t working as she trusted Sanusi as a close friend.

The victim and his single mother lived with another co-tenant and the latter’s son, who is around the same age as the victim.

In June 2016, Sanusi visited the unit while the mother and the co-tenant were sleeping in the living room. He made his way to the kitchen toilet.

The two boys were playing inside a bedroom, with the victim lying on a bed while the other boy – who witnessed the sexual assault – lay on another bed in the room.

When the witness went to the kitchen to get a snack, he saw Sanusi leaving the toilet with his pants undone and heading for the bedroom where the victim was. The witness followed Sanusi to the bedroom and saw him sit on the victim’s bed.

Witness tried to help victim

A while later, the witness was playing games on his mobile phone when he heard the victim shout in fear, “help me, help me”. When the witness looked up, he saw that Sanusi had pulled down the victim’s bottoms and was performing a sexual act on the victim.

“The witness was shocked and immediately ran to the victim’s bed to try and protect the latter from the accused’s advances,” said DPP Lau.

“The witness told the accused to stop what he was doing….However, the accused stared at the witness ….and intimidated the witness into silence.”

Sanusi performed a sexual act on the victim, despite the latter repeatedly begging him to stop. He then asked both boys to touch his private parts and perform a sexual act on him, but they refused.

Later, Sanusi gave the witness $10 before leaving the flat.

Victim’s mother confronted accused

The incident came to light after the witness’s mother wondered about the $10 that he got from Sanusi and the victim’s mother noticed that Sanusi in the ensuing days kept trying to be close to the victim, to which the latter showed “marked reluctance,” said DPP Lau.

The victim eventually revealed to his mother that Sanusi had groped his private parts.

On 22 June 2016, the victim’s mother confronted Sanusi in the flat, but he denied his crimes. The argument got so heated that a neighbour called the police.

After his arrest, Sanusi admitted to an Institute of Mental Health psychiatrist that he had shown the victim and the witness pornographic photos of young boys.

Sanusi was found to have alcohol use disorder, paedophilic disorder and gender dysphoria, but no contributory link was found between his conditions and the crimes he committed.

Prosecution asks for stiff sentence

The prosecutors asked for at least 12 years of preventive detention “to deter the accused’s depraved conduct and ensure he is put out of circulation for the public’s protection” given his various past offences, including of a sexual nature.

In 1995, Sanusi was convicted of two charges of molestation of a minor, and one count of committing an act of gross indecency with another male, for which he received seven years’ preventive detention. He had groped two 10-year-old boys and also performed a sexual act on one of them.

In 2013, he was convicted of one charge each of molestation and criminal intimidation, for which he was jailed for 21 months.

He had molested his 29-year-old tenant while she was next to her four-year-old daughter, after she rejected his proposition to sleep with him. When the tenant tried to leave the flat, he flashed a knife at the tenant and her daughter.

In his mitigation plea on Wednesday, Sanusi, who did not have a lawyer, told Justice See through an interpreter, “I am already old and I have several medical conditions. I promise you that I won’t repeat this offence.”

The penalty for sexual penetration of a minor under 14 is between eight and 20 years’ jail, along with a fine and caning. Only male offenders below 50 are liable for caning.

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