Man Pleads Guilty To Rape of 13 Year Old and Theft

SINGAPORE: He told lies to get a 13-year-old girl he had just met to go home with him. When she refused to have sex with him, he stopped her from leaving, hit her with his fist and even pointed a 16cm blade at the victim before she eventually gave in to his threats.

The rapist, who was a full-time national serviceman when he committed the offences, pleaded guilty last Friday (Sep 5) to four charges, including one count of rape for the incident that took place last May. The 20-year-old also pleaded guilty to three charges of sexual penetration of a minor under 16 involving three other girls.

He cannot be named to protect the identity of his victim.

The court heard that he met the girl for the first time on May 20 last year through a mutual friend. They hung out with others in Toa Payoh until the next morning before the three of them shared a taxi home. After the mutual friend alighted, he made up a story about having to pass some money to the friend through the girl and she agreed to go to his Teck Whye Lane flat.

In the flat, he propositioned her with money before moving on to more aggressive tactics, including pinning her down and trying unsuccessfully to tape her mouth shut. He also threatened to not let her leave the flat and to hurt her, unless she complied.

The girl eventually felt she had no alternative but to have sex with him. Shortly after, his mother returned home and the victim took the chance to leave. She then told a friend about the ordeal before she made a police report with her mother.

The three other minors he had sex with were aged 13 and 14 when the offences took place between October 2012 and December last year. During that period, he went absent without official leave thrice from national service. He also pressured one of the minors into having sex with him after going out with her for slightly more than a week.

One of the victims became pregnant and had an abortion in January. They are still in a relationship and she was present in court on Friday with the offender’s mother.

Eight other charges will be taken into consideration for sentencing, including one of theft. The prosecution called for a sentence of at least 12 years’ jail and 12 strokes of the cane, citing aggravating factors such as the use of violence. The acts were calculated and not “thoughtless actions by a low-functioning adolescent driven purely by testosterone”, said Deputy Public prosecutor (DPP) Lee Zu Zhao.

DPP Lee objected to rehabilitative training for the offender, which his lawyer Anand Nalachandran urged High Court judge Choo Han Teck to consider. Mr Nalachandran felt there should not be a general rule against reformative training for rape offenders and pointed to his client’s young age and subnormal intellect.

But DPP Lee noted the absence of reformative training sentences in previous rape cases.

Justice Choo has called for a report assessing the offender’s suitability for reformative training, but cautioned that he may not make such an order even if the report is favourable.

Source: http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/man-pleads-guilty-to-rape/1350870.html