Former SAF regular jailed for raping daughter, claimed he did not want her to seek out ‘other boys’

SINGAPORE: A person began sexually touching his daughter when she was 10 years outdated, escalating the abuse till he raped her not less than as soon as a month from 2017 to June 2018.

The abuse the woman endured between the ages of 10 and 14 solely ended when her mom walked in on one of many assaults in June 2018.

The man, now 41, was sentenced on Monday (Apr 4) to 24 years’ jail and the utmost 24 strokes of the cane, which was the sentence sought by the prosecution.

He was a Singapore Armed Forces (SAF) common on the time of the offences. His identify was redacted in court docket paperwork, and there’s a gag order defending the id of the sufferer.

The man pleaded responsible to 3 counts of rape and aggravated rape. Another 5 costs of sexual offences towards his daughter had been thought-about for sentencing.

During the investigations, the offender mentioned that he didn’t need his daughter to hunt sexual intimacy with “other boys” who may “trash her”, and claimed it could be “safer” to be intimate with him as he knew “how to use protection”, the court docket heard.

GAVE HER BIRTH CONTROL PILL

The offender lived collectively together with his spouse, the sufferer and the sufferer’s youthful sister. The abuse happened within the offender’s in-laws’ house, his mother and father’ house and the household house.

He began touching the sufferer sexually in 2014 or 2015, when she was in Primary 4 or Primary 5, the court docket heard. This occurred when he went into her room to pat her to sleep.

The sexual assaults escalated to rape in December 2016. The court docket heard that the sufferer was afraid of her father, and didn’t battle or resist.

During one such assault between January 2017 and March 2017, when the sufferer was 12 to 13, the offender was frightened that the condom he was carrying had damaged through the rape. 

The subsequent day, after selecting up his daughter from college, he gave her a “morning after” capsule – a contraception capsule – which she took.

DISCOVERY OF OFFENCES

The abuse got here to mild on Jun 24, 2018, when the woman’s mom walked right into a room within the household house and noticed the abuse.

The girl shouted at her husband, demanding to know what he was doing to their daughter. She compelled her husband out of the room and requested her daughter what had occurred, however the woman was crying and was unable to reply.

Although the sufferer’s mom supposed to report the offences, her daughter instructed her not to take action as she didn’t need something to occur to her father. The sufferer’s mom finally came upon that her husband had beforehand had intercourse with their daughter.

She didn’t report the offences as she was involved in regards to the sufferer and her youthful sister, the court docket heard. The offender had additionally begged his spouse for forgiveness.

The sufferer finally reported the offences on Jul 31, 2019.

IMPACT ON THE VICTIM

After reporting the abuse, the sufferer acquired social service intervention from the Ministry of Social and Family Development. She was introduced to remain at a house for women, and finally reintegrated along with her mom and youthful sister.

During her keep on the ladies’ house, she was identified with post-traumatic stress dysfunction. A psychologist discovered that the sufferer’s publicity to sexual grooming and abuse by her father had seemingly led to confusion about wholesome sexual boundaries.

In October 2019, the sufferer mentioned she felt unhappy and fearful because of her father’s actions, and suffered from insomnia, panic assaults, nightmares and recurrent ideas of the abuse.

A psychiatrist famous that the sufferer was reminded of the assaults when she went to locations she had visited along with her father, and when she noticed individuals who resembled him, issues he purchased for her and the identical mannequin of automotive that he drove.

The woman additionally had issue concentrating at school, had suicidal ideas and harmed herself. She continued to expertise flashbacks of the offences when she is alone at house, in accordance with a sufferer impression assertion taken in January.

She is afraid to listen to keys jingling or the principle door opening and shutting, as these used to sign her father’s return house. 

“ABHORRENT BETRAYAL”

Deputy Public Prosecutor Christopher Ong mentioned that the offender had “robbed his own daughter of her innocence”.

“There can really be no more abhorrent betrayal of blood and parental duty than what the accused has done to his own flesh and blood,” mentioned Mr Ong.

“In the home, where the victim should have been safe, her protector turned out to be her predator.”

The prosecution highlighted the offender’s egregious abuse of belief, his rape of a younger and susceptible sufferer, his premeditation and the psychological hurt to the sufferer.

The offender was represented by Mr Josephus Tan and Mr Cory Wong of Invictus Law, who argued for no more than 18 to twenty years’ jail and 24 strokes of the cane.

They highlighted that the offender determined to plead responsible early, earlier than the fees towards him had been finalised. He additionally cooperated with the authorities as quickly as investigations began.

The offender was “truthful and measured” in the best way he had instructed his legal professionals to mitigate, mentioned the defence.

“Just because (he) has been charged with sexual offending, it does not necessarily mean that he is also an individual devoid of integrity or is beyond redemption,” they mentioned.

In sentencing, Justice Ang Cheng Hock mentioned the offender’s acts had been “utterly abhorrent” and a “perverse breach” of the belief that ought to exist between father and daughter.

He mentioned the court docket needed to ship a robust message that the person’s actions can’t be condoned and that he ought to be punished severely.

The penalty for aggravated rape is between eight years and 20 years’ jail and not less than 12 strokes of the cane. The punishment for rape is a jail time period of as much as 20 years’ jail and a tremendous or caning.