Man, 74, gets jail for molesting 8-year-old granddaughter during weekend sleepovers
File photo of the Singapore State Courts.
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By
Lydia Lam
SINGAPORE — An elderly man repeatedly molested his eight-year-old granddaughter when she stayed over at his place for the weekends.
The 74-year-old Singaporean was sentenced to jail for two-and-a-half years on Friday (March 15), after pleading guilty to one count of molesting a minor.
He cannot be named to protect the identity of his granddaughter, who is now 10.
The court heard that the victim and her two brothers would visit their paternal grandfather regularly between January and September 2020.
They stayed over at his home during the weekends, with the elderly man picking them up on Friday.
The three children slept with both grandparents in the same bedroom, and the grandfather slept on a bed with the victim.
His wife would sleep on the floor with her two grandsons.
Sometime in January 2020, while the man was sleeping with his granddaughter, he pulled down her clothes and molested her.
According to the victim, the touching occurred almost every weekend when she stayed over. She could not recall exactly how many times it occurred, estimating only that it happened at least once a month.
In September 2020, the grandfather also pulled up the girl's shirt and molested her.
After this, the girl told her father what happened.
Her father then confronted his own father, who admitted to his acts.
After the confrontation, the girl's father decided to stop sending his children over for sleepovers.
The girl and her father decided not to make a police report at that point as they decided to "forget about the matter and move on with their lives", the prosecution said.
GIRL TELLS TEACHER
In April 2021, the girl attended a guidance programme in school about cyberbullying.After the lesson, she approached her form teacher who conducted the lesson and indicated that had been previously touched inappropriately.
A school counsellor subsequently spoke to the girl and lodged a police report after seeking advice from the Ministry of Social and Family Development.
The prosecution sought three to four years' jail for the man, who attended the hearing with his daughter.
The prosecutor cited the "prolonged abuse of trust" over a period of nine months, the age of the victim and the fact that there was skin-on-skin contact.
No caning was sought as the man was above the age limit for caning.
The man, who was unrepresented, initially contested the part of the statement of facts that said he molested the girl's chest.
However, he eventually accepted it.
The penalties for molesting a minor are a jail term of up to five years, a fine, caning, or a combination of these punishments. CNA
