Paedophile, 22, gets jail, caning for molesting sister when she was 5 and raping her at age 12

Selina Lum
The Straits Times
Jan 30, 2020

When he was 13, he started sexually abusing his younger sister, then five, when he felt the urge to perform the acts depicted in the pornographic animations that he watched online.

At age 20, he had sex with his sister, then 12, while his mother and younger brother slept in the same bedroom.

On Thursday (Jan 30), the man, now 22 years old and diagnosed a paedophile, was sentenced to 111/2 years' jail and seven strokes of the cane after he pleaded guilty to one charge each of molestation and statutory rape.

Seven other charges for sexual offences were taken into consideration. The parties cannot be named due to a gag order to protect the identity of the girl, who is now 14.

The High Court heard that the siblings' mother, who knew about the sexual acts, suspected that her older son was responsible when the girl became pregnant.

After an unsuccessful bid to get the baby aborted, the woman tried to hide the pregnancy by stopping her daughter from attending school. The school eventually found out about the pregnancy and reported the matter to the authorities.

It turned out that the baby was fathered by another person, who is facing separate investigations. The girl later underwent an abortion in Singapore.

The siblings were two of four children, with the accused being the second oldest and the victim the youngest, who lived in a flat with one bedroom.

In 2010, the accused developed a sexual interest in underage girls and started rubbing himself against his sister.

Once, his mother noticed semen stains on her daughter's panties and questioned him. After he denied having sex with his sister, the woman reminded him that he cannot "do such a thing" to his sister.

In 2011, the victim moved out of the flat with the father. The couple divorced in 2013.

In 2017, the girl moved back to live with her mother and two brothers. It is understood that the eldest sibling lived elsewhere.

From June 2017 to September 2017, the accused, who was doing his full-time national service, had sex with his sister during the weekends when he returned home from camp.

The family slept in the bedroom, with the victim and accused sharing the lower deck of a bunk bed.

Once, the mother, who was sleeping on a mattress on the floor, woke up after the accused was done and asked whether he was scared of the consequences.

In November 2017, the woman took the girl to a clinic to confirm that the victim was pregnant.

The mother ignored the doctor's advice to take the girl to the KK Women's and Children's Hospital because she was worried that her son, who admitted that he had sex with his sister, would be arrested.

She took the girl to a clinic in Johor Baru in December 2017 but the doctor declined to carry out an abortion. She then told the girl to stop attending school.

In January 2018, when school officials contacted the woman about the girl's absence, she sought to withdraw her daughter from school. Eventually she revealed that her daughter was pregnant.

Following his arrest, the accused was assessed to be exclusively sexually attracted to children.

Prosecutors argued for at least 101/2 years' jail and seven strokes of the cane.

"The accused's treatment of his younger sister as a means of sexual gratification epitomises perversion and abuse of trust," said Deputy Public Prosecutor Marshall Lim.

The defence asked for 10 years' jail and seven strokes of the cane .

Mr Josephus Tan, who was assigned to defend the accused, said his client was remorseful and that he had no part to play in the subsequent cover-up.

In handing down a sentence longer than what prosecutors sought, Justice Chua Lee Ming told the accused: "I cannot ignore the fact that instead of protecting your younger sister, you abused her sexually over a period of time and the offences escalated."