Molester gets stiffer sentence

[Cao Pi]

Molester gets stiffer sentence

by Teo Xuanwei
05:55 AM Nov 24, 2010

SINGAPORE - He masqueraded as a "medicine man" who could exorcise "ghosts".

And on that pretext, Al-Habib Sheih Haji Ismail Al Mahberoh, 55, took a 13-year-old girl into the toilet in her home and fondled her breasts for five minutes.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Toh Shin Hao appealed to the High Court yesterday to stiffen the 10-month jail term imposed on Al-Habib and set a benchmark sentence for a law enacted in 2008 aimed at protecting victims below age 14 in sexual offences.

Justice V K Rajah agreed and increased Al-Habib's jail term to two years.

The court heard that Al-Habib advertised his massage services when he met the victim and her mother at a provision shop.

On the afternoon of Nov 22, 2008, Al-Habib turned up at the victim's flat after her mother requested for a massage from Al-Habib's wife.

He then tricked the girl's mother into letting him take the teenager into the kitchen toilet to check for "ghosts" in her body.

When she agreed, Al-Habib locked himself in the toilet with the girl and abused her.

The court ordered that details that could lead to the identity of the victim being revealed not be published.

DPP Toh said Al-Habib was not only a "confidence trickster" but also showed "a total lack of remorse" by claiming trial.

He said the fact that Parliament when revising the Penal Code in 2008 had increased the maximum jail term from two to five years for outrage of modesty offences committed against those under age 14 showed the seriousness of the crime.

Justice Rajah agreed that the district judge's sentence did not "adequately reflect the heinousness of the offence".

What made it more aggravating was that Al-Habib, who had a history of other offences involving deceit dating back to 1979, had committed the current offence through hoodwinking the victim and her family, he added.

 

[Cao Pi]

2 more years for child molester


Nov 24, 2010

SEXUAL PREDATORS JAILED
2 more years for child molester

He was initially sent to prison for 10 months for preying on girl, 13

By Selina Lum

Al-Habib had posed as a 'medicine man' to 'remove the ghost' from his victim.

HE PRESENTED himself as a 'medicine man' to a wheelchair-bound woman, and convinced her to let him check her teenage daughter for a 'ghost'. But Al-Habib Sheih Haji Ismail Al Mahberoh, 55, went on to molest the 13-year-old in the toilet of her home.

Initially jailed for 10 months by a district court in July, he will now be behind bars for two years instead, following a successful appeal to the High Court yesterday for a harsher penalty to reflect the heinousness of his crime.

The girl, now 15, and her family cannot be named under a court order. Al-Habib had approached the girl's mother in a shop, as she was talking to a friend about the stroke which left her wheelchair-bound. He said he could cure her, and gave her his name card.

On Nov 22, 2008, the woman called him to ask for his massage service. He turned up and, noticing her daughter, started talking to her mother about the girl being 'possessed' by a ghost. He then persuaded the woman to let him 'check' the girl in the toilet so he could 'remove the ghost'.

Read the full story in Wednesday's edition of The Straits Times.
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