Man who repeatedly sexually abused stepdaughter, threatened to kill her if she told anyone, pleads guilty

SINGAPORE: A man repeatedly sexually abused his stepdaughter when she was aged between nine and 12 years old and threatened to kill her and her mother if she told anyone.

However, he denied sexually assaulting her when he was arrested and claimed that she had falsely accused him.

While out on bail, the man and his wife – the victim’s biological mother – told the victim on two occasions to tell the police that she had given a false statement. 

All parties in this case cannot be named due to a gag order protecting the victim, now 16. 

On Monday (Apr 14), the 33-year-old man pleaded guilty to one count of molestation and one count of rape in the High Court. 

Five other similar charges will be taken into consideration for his sentencing. 

He also pleaded guilty to one count of cheating, with another charge taken into consideration for his sentencing. 

The man had conspired with a friend to cheat POSB by opening a bank account on Feb 16, 2021, and falsely representing that he would be the sole operator of the account if the application was granted. 

The accused relinquished the bank account to the friend and disclosed the i-banking details to him. The bank account was subsequently used by unknown persons to facilitate scams.

The man, who was on bail, appeared in court in a long-sleeved, dark-coloured shirt on Monday, nearly 30 minutes after his hearing was scheduled to start. The reason for his late appearance was not heard in court. 

When asked how he would plead to the charges, the man initially asked if court could be adjourned as he did not have a lawyer. 

High Court judge Dedar Singh Gill then pointed out that enough time had been given to him to get a lawyer and asked him whether he wanted to plead guilty or not. 

After a pause, the man said he would plead guilty. 

Justice Gill then explained the process to him and asked if he was clear whether he wanted to plead guilty or claim trial, to which the man said he understood and pleaded guilty. 

Following his hearing, the judge gave him four weeks to engage a lawyer and file a mitigation plea. 

When he asked the man’s bailor if they would be extending bail, his bailor said: “The family has decided to discharge ourselves … don’t want to extend bail anymore.”

It is not clear how the bailor is related to the accused. 

WHAT HAPPENED 

According to court documents, the man met the victim’s mother in 2015 and the pair got married in December 2017. 

The court heard that the man and the victim shared a close relationship, with the victim treating him as her biological father as he was the only male figure in her life. Meanwhile, the victim’s mother viewed him as a “responsible” father and entrusted him with equal responsibility in caring for the victim and her sisters.

In October 2020, the victim, together with the accused, her mother and her two younger sisters, moved into a three-room flat with two bedrooms. 

The man and the victim’s mother occupied the master bedroom while the victim and her two sisters occupied the other. 

Sometime between Dec 23, 2017 and Apr 16, 2018, the accused committed his first act of sexual assault against the victim, then 9, while she and her sisters were asleep in their room. At the time, the victim’s mother was at work. 

The court heard that the victim was sleeping on the bottom deck of the bunk bed while her sisters were sleeping on the upper deck.  

While she was asleep, the man lay down beside her before hugging and rubbing her stomach, waking her up. Though she felt shocked, she kept quiet. He then proceeded to molest her. 

When she attempted to climb up to the upper deck, he pulled her back down to the bottom deck and made her perform a sexual act. 

Later, he warned her not to tell her mother. 

The man continued to molest her once or twice a month. 

Sometime in January or February 2021, the victim recorded notes about her feelings about the assaults on her phone and wrote: “You will be in jail already if I had told anyone about this.”

After discovering the note while checking her phone without her consent, the accused threatened to kill her and her mother if she told anyone and invited her to tell him if she wanted to call the police. He claimed that if she did, he would turn himself in. 

When he asked what she wanted to do, the victim said she would not tell anyone. The man then deleted the note. 

According to court documents, his sexual assaults continued and intensified sometime in January or February 2021, when he raped her. 

From then on, he would rape her on about half of the subsequent occasions of him outraging her modesty, the court heard. 

Details of the sexual abuse eventually came to light sometime in March or April 2021 – around three years after the first sexual assault - when the victim could no longer withstand the depravity of the accused’s sexual assaults on her and confided in a friend. 

Her friend advised her to file a police report but the victim refused to do so, as she was afraid that the man would kill her and her mother.   

A few days later, the victim’s friend told her own mother about what the victim had told her. 

When the victim learnt about this, she implored her friend to tell her mother not to act on the information as she was afraid.  

Subsequently, during her friend's birthday celebration in July 2021, the victim confided in her friend's mother, who called the police.

The man was arrested on the same day but denied having sexually assaulted the victim when interviewed by the police and confronted with the victim’s allegation that he had sexually assaulted her. 

Instead, he claimed that she was falsely accusing him.

OBSTRUCTING JUSTICE

According to court documents, the man and the victim’s mother obstructed justice on two occasions when the man was released on bail.  

As a condition of his bail, he had been warned not to meet and communicate with the victim.

However, on Jun 21, 2022, the victim’s mother forwarded a Whatsapp text message from the victim’s caseworker to the accused, which said that the victim would be interviewed by the Attorney-General's Chambers on Jun 30, 2022. 

She also wrote that she would coax the victim to say that she had made a mistake and said what she said because she wanted “freedom” or that her friend was the one who asked her to say those things. 

A few days later, the victim’s mother texted the victim – who was housed in a residential home under the direction of the Ministry of Social and Family Development - to meet at a nearby block.

When the victim arrived, she saw the man with her mother and sisters. Her mother later told her to inform the police that she had given a false statement against the accused because she was “mad” at him. 

The accused also repeated this to the victim. 

The next day, the victim’s mother texted her again, asking her to meet at a temple in Chinatown at about 7.30pm, where the accused was working. 

Thinking that she would only be meeting her mother, the victim agreed.

When she arrived, the victim’s mother asked them to go into a van parked beside the road. Inside the van, the victim saw the accused, her sisters and two uncles.

As the van started moving, the accused told her to tell deputy public prosecutors that she wished to drop the case and to say that she had given a false statement to the police at an upcoming interview. 

The victim’s mother then repeated what the accused said, but the victim ignored them. 

Before she alighted from the van, the accused gave her one cup of bubble tea and S$80 (US$60) in cash, asking her to tell him if she had no money.

As a result of these incidents, the court heard that the victim felt disappointed that her mother did not trust her and also felt pressured by her mother and the accused to retract her allegations. 

According to a psychiatric report from the Institute of Mental Health, the victim was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and would experience recurring flashbacks about five to six times a month.

A psychological report found that she experienced feelings of injustice stemming from her being placed out-of-home while the accused continued to reside with her family. She was housed in a residential home under the direction of the Ministry of Social and Family Development on Sep 10, 2021. 

She also felt sad and disappointed as her mother blamed her for reporting the sexual abuse and believed that she had lied to gain freedom.

The man will be sentenced at a later date.