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Man Molests Girlfriend’ Teenage Daughter Under Guise Of Spiritual Cleansing

A man told his girlfriend that he would perform “spiritual cleansing” on her teen daughter, but he did not say it would involve fondling the girl’s breast and touching her genitals.

That took place in October last year, and the man, 31, was sentenced to 15 months’ jail and three strokes of the cane yesterday.

The 15-year-old victim was a student at the time and had considered the accused to be her stepfather even though he is not married to her mother.

He had moved into a flat in Bukit Merah with the victim and her mother on Oct 16.

On the night that they moved in, the accused discussed “spiritual cleansing” with the victim’s mother.

He said this would involve massaging the teenager’s body. The mother agreed to the purported cleansing. Neither the victim nor her mother agreed to the accused touching the victim’s private parts.

The three of them went to sleep together that night in the living room of the one-room HDB unit, with the victim lying in the middle.

At about 3am, the teenager awoke to discover that the accused had slipped his hand underneath her T-shirt and was touching her stomach.

Shocked and unsure what to do, she kept quiet and pretended to be asleep.

The accused slowly moved his hand to touch her left breast for about three minutes before getting up to talk to her mother. After speaking with the mother for some time, he returned to lie down next to the victim, who continued to feign sleep.

The accused then put his hand inside the girl’s shorts and touched her genitals. Upon feeling some pain, she got up and walked away to sit on the sofa. She remained awake, using her cellphone until dawn, then left for school.

Later that day, she told her aunt about the molestation and filed a police report, in which she referred to the accused as her stepfather.

In court yesterday, he admitted to two charges of criminal use of force with the knowledge that he would outrage the girl’s modesty.

Deputy Public Prosecutor James Chew noted that the man had previously been convicted for an unrelated charge of underage sex.

He further argued that the man had abused the girl’s trust as her surrogate father figure, and that he had stopped just short of committing the more serious sexual penetration of a minor.

For each individual charge, the man could have been jailed for up to two years, caned, and fined, or given any combination of the three punishments.

Source: www.straitstimes.com

June 25, 2015
Boston Bomber Apologises For Attack

Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev yesterday (June 24) apologised for the deadly 2013 attack at a hearing before a US judge formally sentenced him to death for killing four people and injuring 264 in the bombing and its aftermath.

The 21-year-old ethnic Chechen, who had not testified during his trial, referred to Allah and admitted that he and his now-dead older brother carried out one of the highest-profile attacks on US soil, in a courtroom packed with survivors of the April 15, 2013 bombing.

“I am sorry for the lives I have taken, for the suffering that I have caused you, for the damage I have done, irreparable damage,” said Tsarnaev, who had sat in silence, his head cast down as two survivors and family members of victims described the attacks’ heavy toll on their lives.

“In case there is any doubt, I am guilty of this attack, along with my brother,” Tsarnaev said, standing at the defence table.

Tsarnaev had been found guilty killing three people and injuring 264 in the bombing near the finish line of the world-renowned race, as well as fatally shooting a police officer three days later. The same federal jury that convicted him in April voted for death by lethal injection in May.

As he handed down that sentence, US District Judge George O’Toole condemned Tsarnaev for falling under the spell of militant Islamists, including American-born al Qaeda figure Anwar al Awlaki, who was killed in a 2011 drone strike.

“It is tragic … that you succumbed to their demonic siren song,” Mr O’Toole said. “As long as your name is mentioned, what will be remembered is the evil you’ve done.”

Before the judge pronounced the sentence, Ms Rebekah Gregory, who lost her left leg on that blood-soaked April day, addressed Tsarnaev directly.

“Terrorists like you do two things in this world. One, they create mass destruction, but the second is quite interesting,” Ms Gregory said. “Because do you know what mass destruction really does? It brings people together. We are Boston strong and we are America strong, and choosing to mess with us was a terrible idea.”

DARK MEMORIES

Tsarnaev’s trial brought back some of Boston’s darkest living memories. Jurors saw videos of the bombs’ blinding flashes and the chaotic aftermath as emergency workers and spectators rushed to aid the wounded, many of whom lost legs.

Three people died in the bombing: Martin Richard, 8, Chinese exchange student Lingzi Lu, 26, and restaurant manager Krystle Campbell, 29. Three days later, Tsarnaev and his 26-year-old brother, Tamerlan, shot dead Massachusetts Institute of Technology police officer Sean Collier, 26.

Tamerlan Tsarnaev died following a gunfight with police that ended when Dzhokhar ran him over with a car.

During the trial, federal prosecutors described the brothers as adherents of al Qaeda’s militant Islamist ideology who wanted to “punish America” with the attack on the world-renowned marathon.

Tsarnaev’s attorneys admitted their client had played a role in the attack but tried to portray him as the junior partner in a scheme hatched and driven by his older brother. The Tsarnaev family came to the United States from Russia a decade before the attack.

Boston has been on high alert since the attack and its aftermath. Police were out in force around the waterfront courthouse all day yesterday.

At midday, Boston Police arrested a man outside the courthouse, and said he had a meat cleaver in his possession.

“In today’s threat environment, you can’t overlook anything,” Mr Vincent Lisi, the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s top agent in Boston, told reporters. He added that members of a joint terrorism task force were interviewing the man.

LONG PROCESS

Even after the sentencing, the legal wrangling over Tsarnaev’s fate could play out for years, if not decades. Just three of the 74 people sentenced to death in the United States for federal crimes since 1998 have been executed.

Krystle Campbell’s mother, Patricia, called Tsarnaev’s actions “despicable”.

“You went down the wrong road,” Ms Campbell said. “I know life is hard, but the choices you made were despicable and what you did to my daughter was disgusting.”

Tsarnaev asked forgiveness for himself and his dead brother.

“I ask Allah to have mercy upon me, my brother and my family,” Tsarnaev said. “I ask Allah to bestow his mercy upon those who are here today.”

The government’s chief prosecutor on the case, Mr William Weinreb, said he was unimpressed by Tsarnaev’s apology.

“He did this for political reasons. This was a politically motivated act,” Mr Weinreb said. “At no point during his statement did he ever renounce the motives for which he carried out this act. He never renounced terrorism.”

Source: www.todayonline.com

June 25, 2015
New Tender Called For Sengkang Columbarium Site

A new tender has been called at the Sengkang site originally awarded to a commerical firm to build a Chinese temple housing a columbarium.

An outcry from residents in the area had led the authorities to terminate the project.

On Tuesday, the Housing and Development Board (HDB) put up a tender notice for the site at Fernvale Link for the development of a Chinese temple.

The site, which has an area of 2,000 sq m, will be leased for a term of 30 years.

The Ministry of National Development (MND) had said in May that the land would be released for re-tender when it signed a mutual termination agreement with Eternal Pure Land, the company which had secured the original bid.

Tender documents uploaded on the HDB website showed that provisions had been put in place to allow only religious groups to bid for the land.

“To qualify for participation in this Tender, the Tenderer must be established or constituted for the advancement of religion,” said the documents.

For-profit companies have been excluded from the tender. Only registered societies, charities and non-profit companies can qualify.

The tender closes on Aug 4.

The previous tender had been awarded to Eternal Pure Land, a commercial company that planned to build a temple and commercial columbarium on the land.

After residents in Build-To-Order flats around the development complained about the land going to a commercial entity, MND terminated the previous tender agreement, and refunded the company the $5.2 million it had paid for the land.

The ministry also released a small plot of land along Tampines Road, zoned for cemetery use, to the company for a “pilot project” for columbarium services.

Source: www.straitstimes.com

June 25, 2015
1.9Kg Of Cannabis Seized At Woodlands Checkpoint

About 1.9kg of cannabis was seized at Woodlands Checkpoint on Tuesday (Jun 23), and two men have been arrested, said the Immigrant & Checkpoints Authority (ICA) and Central Narcotics Bureau (CNB).

In a joint press release on Wednesday, the agencies said a Malaysian-registered motorcycle arrived for routine checks at about 6.45pm, driven by a 20-year-old male Malaysian. He was accompanied by a pillion rider, another 20-year-old male Malaysian.

“In the course of checks, a checkpoint officer observed an unusual bulge under the motorcyclist’s clothes,” said the agencies, adding that further checks uncovered a total of four blocks of substances believed to be cannabis, “strapped to the subjects’ backs and groin areas”.

The motorcyclist, the pillion rider and the blocks were handed over to the CNB, who discovered the blocks to be cannabis worth an estimated street value of over S$62,000.

The agencies said that investigations on both suspects are still ongoing, and that under the Misuse of Drugs Act, those convicted of importing more than 500g of cannabis may face the death penalty.

Source: www.channelnewsasia.com

June 25, 2015
Heng Swee Keat To Lead Task Force Probing Complaints By Residents Of DBSS Development Centrale 8

Following a petition signed by owners of more than half of the units at Centrale 8, a taskforce surpervised by Tampines GRC Member of Parliament Heng Swee Keat will be formed to look into the residents’ grouses.

Buyers of almost 400 of the 708 units in the Design, Build and Sell Scheme (DBSS) project had endorsed the petition to extend their year-long warranty. They also want compensation for alleged “inferior quality of materials” used and poor design that compromises their space, safety and privacy.

Tampines Town Council chairman Baey Yam Keng told TODAY that Mr Heng had asked him to reply on his behalf, after residents emailed their petition last Friday (June 19) to the project’s developer, Sim Lian Group, and looped in the Housing and Development Board (HDB), Ministry of National Development and Tampines MPs.

Mr Baey said the task force will be led by senior grassroots leaders, with Mr Heng supervising the team personally. The task force could include representatives from Sim Lian, HDB, the Building and Construction Authority and the town council.

“We want to help residents by bringing the relevant people together so that we can all talk things over together,” he said.

“Once we get the composition settled I think we should have the first meeting as soon as we can, because the residents are anxious.”

Mr Baey added that the outcome “would have to be a balance between the wishes of the residents as well as the contractual obligations of the developers”.

A developer has to rectify any defect in the units within a year after handing over the keys, but residents are worried other defects may surface after that. They are creating a document to highlight issues faced, and will be presenting it to the task force. They hope to have a dialogue by early July.

In 2011, Centrale 8 made the headlines for the wrong reasons after its developer asked for S$880,000 for the five-room units – a record indicative asking price which was on par with the cost of suburban condominium units. This prompted a public outcry which led Sim Lian to slash the asking price to S$778,000. As the controversy brewed, National Development Minister Khaw Boon Wan weighed in and said that consumers who thought the prices were too high should give the flats a miss. Soon after, the Government announced the DBS scheme was under review and subsequently, the sale of land for DBSS projects was suspended.

According to earlier reports, Centrale 8 homeowners were upset about defects such as faulty locks, cracked tiles and burst water pipes.

But they told TODAY they have bigger issues with the design of their homes and estate. For example, some toilet windows face the common corridor, which means windows cannot be opened. The entrance to the estate as well as the carpark meet at a cross junction, increasing chances of accidents, said residents, who are calling for another entrance and exit to be created.

A resident who wanted to be known as Mr Cher said the main power switch for the aircon compressor is located outside the flat. “If I want to turn it off, I have to climb out onto the (aircon) ledge, which is very dangerous,” he said.

Another resident, Ms Evelyn Soo, 46, found sanitary pipes taking up usable space in the service yard. When she told Sim Lian about it, the developer responded that the location of the pipes was “to meet with (PUB’s) requirement”.

TODAY understands the national water agency sent a strongly-worded email to the developer calling such statements “wrong and misleading” as PUB “does not mandate that sanitary stacks be located at the service courtyard or AC (aircon) ledge of residential units”.

Sim Lian clarified that the sanitary stack pipes located in the service yards of some unit types are there to meet PUB’s technical requirement, which states that the length of a discharge pipe connecting to the discharge stack pipe cannot exceed its maximum length of 2.5m.

The developer also said it is common for architects to place sanitary stack pipes in wet areas including bathrooms, service yards or the aircon ledges of residential units.

Another resident, who declined to be named, cited another “very awkward” design element where his main gate opens from the right, while the main door opens from left. Half of the master bedroom door protrudes into bedroom space when open. “We paid a premium price but we never got the premium value,” he said.

A Sim Lian spokesman confirmed it has received the residents’ petition and “will continue to attend to their concerns on a one-to-one basis”.

The developer said it remains committed to rectifying reported defects in accordance with the Sale and Purchase Agreement and will “also review subsequent requests for rectification works on a case-by-case basis” after the year-long Defects Liability Period expires.

Sim Lian is working with HDB, Tampines Citizens’ Consultative Committee, Tampines Town Council, the People’s Association Residents’ Committee and grassroots representatives to facilitate the process.

Source: www.todayonline.com

June 25, 2015