A man molested a woman in her bedroom while his colleague was also at her home.
- A man wanted his friend to become an ambassador for his chiropractic clinic
- He offered her bone realignment therapy and a deep tissue massage, which he performed at her home
- He got her to go into her bedroom and molested her there after asking her to undress at various stages
- She made a police report two days later
SINGAPORE — A 33-year-old man was sentenced to one year of jail time and three strokes of the cane on Wednesday (Feb 16) for repeatedly molesting a female friend while giving her a deep tissue massage in 2018.
The man, who cannot be named due to a court order to protect the victim’s identity, was convicted after trial of one charge of using criminal force to molest her.
He was also ordered to compensate the victim, who is now aged about 31, with S$300 for her therapy sessions. He will begin serving his sentence on March 9 and remains out on bail.
The man claimed during the trial that if he had indeed touched the victim, it would have been accidental. He also said that he was not sexually attracted to women but could not provide a reasonable explanation when confronted with phone text messages that showed otherwise.
The pair first met in 2015 when they were working part-time during a Halloween event at the Universal Studios Singapore theme park. They kept in touch and followed each other’s online activities on Instagram.
When she found out in 2018 that he had opened his own chiropractic clinic, she contacted him for bone realignment therapy and deep tissue massage because she frequently felt sore from yoga and gym sessions.
She testified that after going to his clinic on Oct 6 that year, she felt that the session “really worked”.
They then met about a month later to discuss her becoming an ambassador for his clinic, where she agreed to post videos of him performing bone realignment therapy on her Instagram page in exchange for getting 10 per cent referral fees and free chiropractic sessions.
He specified that he did not want her to post a video of her receiving a deep tissue massage because it was “too painful” and some of his clients would be afraid upon hearing “screaming and all”.
While they initially agreed to do a trial video on Nov 27 that year, he then suggested doing it at her home instead due to rental issues with his clinic. She agreed because she trusted him and his colleague would be there to help as well.
That day, he performed bone realignment therapy on the victim on a portable massage bed he had set up in the living room.
He then told his colleague to stop filming, claiming that he already had videos from doing a deep tissue massage on another client earlier.
When he told the victim to lie down on the massage bed so that he could give her a deep tissue massage, she was confused because it was not part of the plan, but trusted him and complied with his instructions.
After massaging her glutes at the hip and buttocks for a short while, he said that he had forgotten his massage oil and asked if she had lotion. He then followed her into her bedroom.
When she told him that the room was too small for him to do the massage, he said that they could do it on the floor.
She testified that she told herself not to be paranoid and laid out a folding mattress on the floor.
He closed the door and told her to remove her shorts, saying they were too thick and that he had massaged other “sports professionals” in “their underwear”. When she did so, he massaged her thighs before touching her private parts at least 12 times over her underwear.
He later asked her to lie face-up and touched her again, then pulled aside her underwear. He also asked her to take off her top, leaving her in a sports bra.
She did not confront him out of fear. After he and his colleague left, she asked her friends and partner for advice before confronting him via text messages on the phone.
He apologised and alleged that he did not realise he had touched her private parts. She made a police report two days later.
The prosecution noted that in the man’s police statements, which were admitted into evidence after a hearing where he claimed he had not given the statements voluntarily, he expressed remorse and confessed to touching the victim’s private parts.
The prosecution also rubbished his claims that he was not attracted to girls. In text messages between him and another friend, he had asked for advice to “hit on” a girl and said that he loved “woman in dress
IMPACT ON VICTIM
District Judge Sharmila Sripathy-Shanaz said in her sentencing remarks that the “multiple incursions” that the man had committed “can only be described as sustained and persistent”.
In an impact statement, the victim detailed how the incident had “tested her emotional limit”. She went to a psychologist afterwards but had to stop due to the costs.
Now, when she goes for treatments or massages, she asks for a female doctor or masseuse. She will then ask a friend to accompany her if no female was available.
The judge noted during the trial that the victim drank alcohol excessively because having to act and work normally was difficult, which led to bouts of hospitalisation.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Phoebe Tan told the court that the victim’s hands would grow cold and she would breathe “very fast” when she saw someone who looked like the accused.
The prosecutor added: “She feels alienated as her family is (overseas) and cannot support her in this trying time. As Your Honour can see, this incident has impacted the victim considerably.”
District Judge Sripathy-Shanaz agreed that the victim had “suffered a degree of emotional and psychological trauma”.
The judge added: “Trust is a defining element in every masseur-client relationship. It is expressed in the latitude given to masseurs to touch the unclothed body of their client.
"She placed her trust in him by virtue of his job, disrobing at his request and... expecting him to perform the massage in a lawful manner with due regard for her modesty. It is clear to me that by his actions, he had abused the trust reposed in him.”
Those convicted of molestation can be jailed for up to two years, fined, caned, or given any combination of the three
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