Man in Singapore who molested 4 out of his 5 daughters, stepdaughters to get 16.5 years' jail & 22 strokes of cane

SINGAPORE: On Oct 8 (Thursday), a 44-year-old Singaporean man was given a sentence of 16-and-a-half years in jail as well as 22 strokes of the cane after he pleaded guilty to one charge of aggravated statutory rape and two charges of aggravated molestation, with seven additional charges taken into consideration.

The man had sexually abused four of the five girls who had been part of his household over the past two decades. Some of the girls were his own daughters, and others were his stepdaughters from his second and third marriages.

He has not been named publicly to protect the identity of his victims.

According to reporting from CNA, Justice Andre Maniam gave the man the full penalties that Deputy Public Prosecutors Sean Teh and Ariel Tan had sought.

The judge, who noted with concern that the offences had occurred within the family context, said that they could cause the victims lasting psychological harm as well as damage relationships within the family.

"Given the nature of the offences and their setting, offences might not be reported until later on or not at all,” he added.

Grave sexual exploitation

DPP Teh had characterised the case as one of "grave sexual exploitation” that occurred between 2008 and 2023.

Although the first victim, who was the daughter of the man’s second wife, had told her mother about what her stepfather had done, she was not believed, and no police report was filed, as she thought the police would not believe her either.

She was only 13 years old when the man molested her in 2008.

The next known incident took place in 2020, with the second victim being the man’s biological daughter, who was 17 years old at the time.

Again, a police report was not filed at the time, as this would have been against the family’s wishes. The report added that the girl was afraid of getting kicked out of the family home or disowned if she reported her father to the police.

However, on March 1, 2024, a police report related to the offence against her was filed by a child protection officer. The report indicated that the girl had sought medical care for suicidal ideation and was being treated by a psychiatrist.  

The third victim was the man’s daughter with his second wife, who was molested during a sleepover at her father’s apartment in November 2021 when she was 13 years old. She filed a police report against her father the following January.

The man’s final victim was his stepdaughter from his third marriage, who was first molested in 2020 or 2021, when she was between the ages of five and seven. He molested her again sometime in 2023.

Early in November 2024, the girl, who considered the man to be a father figure to her, showed a friend a video of the man doing an illicit act while looking at her. This friend encouraged her to tell the police, but the victim was afraid of bad things happening to her family.

But her friend told one of their teachers about it, which is how the Ministry of Social and Family Development (MSF) learned about the offences.

The man was arrested on November 15, 2024, after a child protection officer filed a police report.

The man was not found to have any mental disorders when he was evaluated at the Institute of Mental Health, CNA added. /TISG

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