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Probation report called for man who molested 9-year-old niece while she feigned sleep
A young child in distress. (File photo: iStock)
Davina Tham
08 Apr 2022 05:35PM (Updated: 08 Apr 2022 05:35PM)
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SINGAPORE: A 22-year-old man admitted on Friday (Apr 8) to molesting his underaged niece about 10 times a year while she pretended to be asleep.
The offences happened from 2014 to 2017, when the victim was aged nine to 12 and the offender was about 15 to 18 years old. Their identities are protected by gag order.
The judge ordered a probation suitability report after the man pleaded guilty to three counts of outraging the modesty of a minor.
Three more charges will be taken into consideration when he returns to court for sentencing next month.
The court heard that the victim and offender lived together with other family members from 2005 to 2020.
In 2014, the offender, the victim and the victim's brother were sleeping in the same room at home. The offender slept on the lower deck of a bunk bed, and the victim on a pull-out bed next to him.
One night, the victim woke up when she felt her uncle carrying her. He placed her face-down on his bed.
He then removed her clothes and molested her.
After he was done, he cleaned the victim's body with a towel, put her clothes back on and placed her back on her bed.
The victim did not consent to the acts, said the prosecution. She pretended to be asleep the whole time as she was afraid of her uncle.
He continued to outrage her modesty in a similar manner over the years, carrying her to his bed while she feigned sleep as she was afraid.
On one occasion in 2017, he carried the victim to his room from the bed she was sharing with her grandmother. The victim woke up when he entered the room, but her grandmother was asleep and unaware.
These acts only came to light in 2020, when the victim's stepfather confronted her about some messages she had sent to her ex-boyfriend.
The victim then tearfully revealed what her uncle had done to her, and was brought to make a police report.
The offender stopped the acts in 2017, when the victim started menstruating. The prosecution said the victim's relationship with her uncle improved in 2019, and she "stopped resenting him as much".
The defence urged the court to call for a probation suitability report, arguing that the offender was very young when the offences started and ignorant of the law then.
The defence also highlighted that the offender stopped the acts of his own accord, and not because he had been caught.
He cooperated fully with investigations and volunteered details that were not part of the allegations initially made against him, added the lawyer.
The prosecution did not object to the calling of a probation suitability report.
For each count of outraging the modesty of a minor, the man could be jailed up to five years, fined, caned or sentenced to any combination of these punishments.
