Teen tried to rape girl, 4
[video=youtube;ZQ7DdT2FlPw]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQ7DdT2FlPw[/video]
Tan Tam Mei
Wednesday, Jul 27, 2016
She was four and he was 18.
The girl, who was his step-niece, had climbed on him in an attempt to play, but the teen became aroused and tried to have sex with her.
Yesterday in court, the man was sentenced to six years in prison and three strokes of the cane for his offence in 2012.
The man, now 22, cannot be named to protect the identity of the girl, now eight.
He had earlier pleaded guilty to one charge of attempted rape.
A second charge of attempted rape of his 13-year-old girlfriend in the same month prior to the first charge, was taken into consideration during sentencing.
The court heard that the man lived with his stepfather in a two-room HDB flat after his mum remarried in July 2011.
When his mum died in December 2011, he continued living there as his stepfather considered and treated him as his own son.
In January 2012, the stepfather's daughter and her the four-year-old girl moved into the flat as well.
The girl addressed the man as "uncle" and he would often play with her and look after her, court documents stated.
One evening in February 2012, the man and the girl were in the living room, while the girl's mother and a friend were in the kitchen.
AROUSED
The girl wanted to play with her uncle, and sat on him.
He became aroused and tried to have sex with her against her will, but did not succeed.
During the offence, the girl did not scream, cry or make any sound.
But after the incident, she pulled up her shorts and panties and ran to her mother in the kitchen where she started crying and told her mother, "Uncle kacau (disturb in Malay)".
Her mother assumed that the two were just playing and told the girl that if she wanted to play with her uncle, she should not be crying.
In the days that followed, the girl complained of pain in her genital area, and her mother assumed she had hurt herself while playing.
But when the pain persisted, the mother sought help on March 1 at a polyclinic.
The girl was referred to the National University Hospital, where the police were alerted to the case.
The man was arrested the next day.
Following the abuse, the girl had difficulty sleeping and would wake up crying.
She disliked hearing the man's name and described him as "bad" as he had caused her pain, the court heard.
After his arrest, the man was assessed to have an IQ of 61 and mild mental retardation.
But he was not of unsound mind and was aware that his act was wrong.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Kavita Uthrapathy said the girl's age and vulnerability was an aggravating factor in the case.
Although the man was not biologically related to the girl and her family, he was treated as part of the household, she said.
In his mitigation, the man's defence lawyer, Mr Daniel Soo, said his client's low IQ and mental disability meant he was "little more than a child himself".
His fractured family background also meant that his sexual education comprised entirely of pornography.
Mr Soo cited an Institute of Mental Health report dated June 2016 which stated that his client was not a paedophile and his risk of reoffending was "likely to be low".
However the DPP said that the man's intellectual disability did not preclude him from being criminally culpable for his actions.
