Teen unzipped pants and molested woman in queue at Popular bookstore

Kok Yufeng
The New Paper
Jan 5, 2021

The teenager was on probation for previous molestation offences and was in school clothing when he unzipped his pants and molested a woman in a bookstore.

He and his 22-year-old victim had been queuing at the cashier counter in Popular bookstore in The Clementi Mall on Nov 29, 2019, when the incident happened.

Yesterday, the 18-year-old boy pleaded guilty to outraging the modesty of the woman. He cannot be named as he was 17 at the time of the offence.

Highlighting that the teenager had acted brazenly, Deputy Public Prosecutor Alexandria Shamini Joseph said the accused had admitted during investigations to intentionally queuing behind the victim to molest her.

The woman was in the queue at about 6.20pm when she felt something press against her. Seconds later, she felt it again.

EXPOSED

Turning around, she saw the teenager standing behind her with his pants unzipped and his private parts exposed.

She confronted him but the teen walked away, so she got a bookstore employee to stop the boy and then called the police.

DPP Joseph sought a reformative training suitability report.

She said the teen had re-offended while he was serving 21 months' supervised probation, imposed on him in 2018 after he was convicted in the Youth Court of two counts of molestation with three other insult of modesty charges taken into consideration.

Defence counsel Muhd Shafiuddin Ong asked District Judge May Mesenas to also call for a probation suitability report, noting that his client was still young and had regretted his actions.

He said the teen recently completed a National ITE Certificate course and is due to enlist for national service next month.

Judge Mesenas called for both reports, but told Mr Ong he would need to justify why probation should be considered.

The teen has been remanded for a week and will be sentenced on Feb 15.