Widower, 63, who raped and sexually abused young daughter gets 28 years' jail

Selina Lum
The Straits Times
June 28, 2020

A 63-year-old widower who raped and sexually abused his biological daughter over a period of six years from the time she was 12, was sentenced to 28 years' jail on Friday (June 26).

The man, who has two other daughters and a son, cannot be named due to a gag order to protect the identity of the victim, who is now 20.

He pleaded guilty to three charges of aggravated statutory rape, committed between June and July 2013 when the girl was 13.

Another 62 charges - including 25 counts of sexual penetration of a minor, 10 counts of sexual assault by penetration and 25 counts of incest committed when the girl was between 16 and 18 - were taken into consideration.

The High Court heard that after man's wife died in 2010, he began treating the victim, his third child, as his favourite and constantly told her that she resembled her mother.

"He eventually became attracted to her," Deputy Public Prosecutor Lee Zu Zhao told the court.

At the time, the family lived in a two-room rental flat, with the sisters sleeping in the bedroom and their father and brother sleeping in the living room.

However, the brother was hardly home at night because he worked the night shift at McDonald's and later stayed in camp on most days during his full-time national service.

In early 2012, when the victim was 12, the man found out that she was in a relationship with a boy at school and strongly disapproved of it.

He made her stay up late at night, after her sisters had gone to bed, to give her "pep talks".

He also threatened to send her to the Pertapis Centre for Women and Girls unless she obeyed him, stopped involving herself with boys, and focused on her studies.

When he began hugging and kissing her, she felt that she had no choice but to obey him as he continued threatening to send her away.

Over the next year or so, his acts against her became more and more intrusive.

The abuse took place almost every night, apart from the fasting months and when the victim's brother was at home.

He continued to sexually abuse her at least once a month until he was caught in the act by his elder daughter.

On the night of March 7, 2018, the elder sister came out of the bedroom to get painkillers for a headache and saw the victim lying on the sofa and their father between her legs.

When she confronted them, the victim claimed that they had been watching television, while the man said he had been looking for his lighter.

The elder sister returned to the bedroom but the next morning, she repeatedly questioned the victim, who finally revealed what her father had been doing to her.

That evening, the victim lodged a police report and the man was arrested on March 11.