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AFTER spending more than two decades behind bars for rape, molestation and other offences, a man is going back to prison for another 12 years for molesting a young boy.
Mohamed Sa’ad Ismail, 63, was yesterday given preventive detention after the prosecutor sought a jail term of more than 10 years for the unrepentant repeat offender.
The court was told the rag and bone man won the 12-year-old victim’s trust by giving him money for food and local area network (LAN) gaming, rides in his trishaw as well as the opportunity to play musical instruments at a music studio.
Mohamed Sa’ad allowed the boy, who comes from an unstable home environment, to stay overnight with him at the studio, sleep beside him on the carpeted floor, and even send him off in the morning. The victim’s family cannot afford to send the boy to school.
Last month, Mohamed Sa’ad pleaded guilty to caressing, licking, sucking and fondling the victim at the studio in the Arab Street area on Jan 15 and 16 this year. This is three years after his release from a seven-year detention for outraging the modesty of a 14-year-old boy scout in 1999.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Sanjiv Vaswani told the court earlier that Mohamed Sa’ad, who came to know the victim early last year, often gave him money to spend on food and LAN gaming.
Mohamed Sa’ad, who had the key to the studio, would often let the victim stay with him overnight, allowing him to play the musical instruments.
On Jan 13, he gave a trishaw ride to the victim and his seven-year-old friend before they stayed overnight with him. At about 12.30am, while lying on the floor next to the victim, Mohamed Sa’ad molested and tried to sexually assault the 12-year-old.
When day broke, he woke up the boys and gave the victim $10. They then left. He repeated the abuse at the studio the next day at about 1am.
Calling him a menace to society yesterday, DPP Vaswani said Mohamed Sa’ad had offended again after having spent more than 25 years of his life in prison and having been given 23 strokes of the cane. His first conviction in 1975, when he was 28, was for raping a young woman.
He said Mohamed Sa’ad was clearly without remorse and a lengthy period of detention was necessary for the protection of the public.
The DPP also said Mohamed Sa’ad managed to evade the authorities after the seven-year-old friend told the police what had happened. He was eventually arrested near Kallang River on Jan 22, and “rather alarmingly”, the victim was still with him.
District Judge Sarjit Singh said this was a very serious offence, and it was not Mohamed Sa’ad’s first sexual offence.
He could have been given up to 20 years’ preventive detention.
