Man jailed 24 years for sexually grooming and abusing 11-year-old girl
She called him “papa”. He sexually groomed her then raped her. The man who cannot be named due to a gag order, then 45, even bought the then-11 year-old girl a sex toy and asked the child to masturbate with it. When he found out that the girl had reported him to the police, he fled to Malaysia.
At the High Court on Monday (5 March), he was sentenced to 24 years in jail for one charge of aggravated sexual assault by digital penetration, and three charges of aggravated statutory rape. As he’s older than 50 now, he cannot be caned. The prosecution had pushed for “at least 21 years” in jail.
He’s known her all her life
The culprit, who is married and childless, was close to his neighbours even before his victim – their daughter – was born. As the girl was growing up, the man and his wife would often play with her or bring her shopping. At various times, he bought the child perfume, lip gloss, and a music player. He even paid for some of the girl’s tuition fees. The child’s family trusted him, who developed a close relationship with the girl.
Things changed towards the end of her Primary 5 year, when the child became friends with a “Charles” on Facebook. She became infatuated with Charles, whom she never met offline, and would confide her feelings for him to the culprit To date, it is not clear who “Charles” really is.
The culprit capitalised on this. He led her to believe he could get in touch with Charles. In October 2010, he stopped her while she was on the way to tuition. He brought the girl to a multi-storey car park in his sister’s car.
There, he told the child that Charles was hurt in a football game and that he had brought Charles to the doctor. The girl became very upset. He then consoled her, kissed her on the lips, put on a condom, and had sex with her in the back of the car.
In the following weeks, he developed a signal to communicate with the child. He would ring her house phone a few times then hang up. She would then call him on his handphone.
The culprit would arrange to meet the girl at 11.45am on Saturdays when her tuition was scheduled to start, and would drop her off around 2pm when class usually ended. At those times, he would have sex with her while telling the child that having sex was not a crime.
Things came to a halt in the end of January 2011, when the girl was in Primary 6. She broke down during recess time at school because he had told her Charles had met with an accident in Kuala Lumpur.
A teacher noticed her crying and brought her to the school counsellor, who found out that the child was having sex with her neighbour. Her family was informed of this and made a police report the same night, which was a Friday.
The next morning, the culprit got in touch with the child as was the norm established in previous weeks. She told him about the police report. This angered him, who scolded her before hanging up. He immediately took his passport and some belongings and drove to Johor Baru.
In the time since that day in 2011, he had remained in Johor Baru and even had a customary marriage with a woman there. In July 2016, the culprit’s wife saw him by chance at a temple in Johor Baru. She reported him to the Malaysian police, who arrested him for immigration offences and sentenced him to jail. He was repatriated to Singapore thereafter.
His defence
Defence counsel Ranadhir Gupta said his client “deeply regrets” his actions.
The culprit’s wife had medical problems which made it difficult for the couple to have sex. He did not agree to become a father figure to the child. To him, she looked like she was 18 years old. “Because of her maturity… he fell for that”, said Ranadhir.
The girl did not actively say no to him when he made sexual advances, either. She “continued to meet the accused”. She went “voluntarily… if she found it repulsive, would she?”.
Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Kavita Uthrapathy called the defence “misguided”. “Perhaps defence fails to appreciate she was a 11 year-old child,” said DPP Kavita. She was too young to consent. “Trying to make a point that the victim did not actively oppose… makes a mockery of all victims.”
As to whether the culprit agreed to be a father figure or not was “absolutely irrelevant”, added DPP Kavita. “He put himself in the position” by buying her gifts, playing with her, even paying for tuition. “She called him papa… he was ok with being called papa.”
There was no remorse, the DPP argued. The “revolting assertions” that the child had the body of an 18 year old and the fact that he ran away to Malaysia made it clear that he did not feel remorse.
The culprit’s actions caused “severe harm” to the girl, added DPP Kavita. A psychiatric report from the Child Guidance Clinic in 2011 stated that the child had symptoms of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. The report stated that the child would have nightmares, and expressed suicidal wishes. She would also have giddy spells and have sudden intrusive thoughts of the sexual abuse, requiring her to take time off school. Even “eight years after, she’s still affected”, said DPP Kavita.
As the girl was under 14 years of age at the time of offence, the culprit could have been sentenced up to 20 years in jail and 12 strokes of the cane per charge.
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