Dad says daughter's name during sex with wife who later finds out he raped the girl, then 15

Selina Lum
The Straits Times
May 3, 2024

While she was being intimate with her husband, a woman heard him say the name of one of their daughters.

Later, when the 15-year-old girl told her mother that her father had sexually abused her, the woman believed her because of what happened earlier.

On May 3, the 47-year-old unemployed man was sentenced to 16 years’ jail and 18 strokes of the cane by the High Court, after he pleaded guilty to two charges of sexual assault by penetration.

Six other charges – two for rape and four for outrage of modesty – were taken into consideration.

Deputy Public Prosecutor Shamini Joseph told the court that the couple and their seven children lived in a one-bedroom flat.

The mother worked at a bakery and provided for the family financially, while the man worked odd jobs and usually stayed out late to drink with his friends.

He slept on a sofa in the living room, while the woman slept in the bedroom with the children.

The man began molesting the victim – his second-oldest child – in 2018, when she was 11 or 12 years old.

He first raped her on Oct 7, 2021, when she was 15.

That morning, after the woman had left for work, the man asked the victim’s younger sister to go to school.

The 12-year-old protested and told him that she had to stay at home for home-based learning.

But the man insisted that she leave the flat even after she phoned her school counsellor to explain the situation to her father.

The victim’s older sister, who was 16 years old, advised the 12-year-old to go to their mother’s workplace. The two girls then left the flat.  

Their departure left the victim alone in the bedroom with her younger siblings, who were aged seven and below.

The man summoned the victim to the living room, but she refused to go, as she knew that he would sexually assault her, as he had done so on a number of occasions.

He then pulled her out of the bedroom and raped her on the sofa.

After the assault, he took a shower with her. The victim bumped into her seven-year-old sister as she was coming out of the toilet.

On the morning of Oct 29, 2021, the man again pulled the victim out of the bedroom and raped her.

The DPP said: “The victim did not put up any resistance because she felt that it was futile, as he was stronger than her and she had no means to stop these acts. She stared at the ceiling while the accused was performing these acts.”

The victim confided in a 15-year-old family friend that she had “butt pain” and that her father had done something to her, but the friend did not dare to probe further.

Shortly after the second rape, the friend attended a birthday celebration for the victim’s mother held at the flat. The mother told the friend that she felt that the victim was hiding something, prompting the friend to recount what the victim had told her.

Overhearing their conversation, the victim’s seven-year-old sister told her mother that on Oct 7, the man had summoned the victim to the living room and that she later saw the victim and the man with wet hair.

The mother then pulled the victim aside and asked her if anything had happened with the man. Surprised by the abrupt question, the girl eventually told her mother about the sexual acts.

The woman confronted the accused.

She also took the girl for a medical check-up, and accompanied her to lodge a police report on Nov 4, 2021. The man was arrested on the same day and has been remanded in custody since.

Investigations revealed that he often checked the victim’s mobile phone to ensure that she did not have any boyfriends, but did not do the same with the other children.

The DPP said the victim initially did not tell anyone about the incidents, as she did not know they were wrong, was afraid that no one would believe her and was fearful of the consequences if she reported the matter.