13.5 years’ jail, caning for bunker surveyor who raped drunk undergraduate

SINGAPORE — A 40-year-old bunker surveyor was sentenced to 13.5 years and six strokes of the cane on Monday (Nov 13) for abducting and raping an undergraduate following a night out at Zouk nightclub three years ago.

The prosecution had sought 14 years’ jail and 12 strokes of the cane for Ong Soon Heng, arguing there was premeditation and that Ong had adopted a line of defence that had “slandered her character and continued to humiliate and traumatise her long after the offences”.

During the trial, which started in March this year, Ong had said that the victim — who cannot be named in order to protect her identity — was in an intimate relationship with him.

The victim was made to recall “sordid details which had been mercifully concealed from her memory,” said the prosecution. “(The victim’s) anguish was plain to see,” it added.

But Justice Aedit Abdullah ruled that Ong’s actions did not amount to the “significant premeditation and orchestration” that the prosecution had alleged.

Ong had seized the opportunity to be alone with the victim, who was then 22, by telling their group of friends that he would send her home. There was no evidence of deliberate plying of drinks to get the victim drunk, said the judge.

Ong’s lawyers Sunil Sudheesan and Diana Ngiam had sought 10 years’ jail and six strokes of the cane for their client.

During the trial, the court heard that the victim became acquainted with Ong, a divorcee, during her internship at a diner that he visited occasionally.

In the wee hours of July 24, 2014, Ong and the woman, together with a few friends, had gone to Zouk.

After she became drunk and unconscious, Ong carried her to the back seat of his car. His act was captured by a CCTV camera.

Ong took the victim to his house at Hume Heights.

Over two hours later, the woman’s boyfriend — who had traced her whereabouts using the Find my iPhone app — discovered her “lying in a stupor” next to Ong in his bed, wearing a T-shirt and boxer shorts that were not hers.

A medical report later estimated her blood alcohol concentration to be between 210.50mg and 254.50mg per 100ml of blood when she was at Ong’s home. She was severely intoxicated and highly unlikely to have had consensual sex at the time, the report stated.

In sentencing Ong, the judge said it was “clear… that the victim here was greatly harmed by the criminal act of the accused.”

“The suffering of victims find retribution and punishment in the heavy sentences passed down, being measured in years rather than months,” he said.

However, the psychological trauma experienced by the victim did not amount to post traumatic stress disorder, which would take the case into a higher sentencing band, he said.

Ong is appealing against his conviction and sentence.

After the hearing on Monday, the victim’s father told reporters: “He deserves what he deserves… (It is) not for me to say if (it is) fair.”

For rape, Ong could have been jailed up to 20 years and caned. For abduction, he faced a jail term of up to seven years and a fine.