Man raped woman at knifepoint after robbery bid was thwarted

SINGAPORE — When his attempt to rob failed because his victim had flung her bag into a private house, he raped and sexually assaulted her. 

Armed with a foldable knife, Kelvin Singh Jagjit Singh repeatedly forced his 42-year-old victim to comply with his requests.

The 25-year-old unemployed man was on Tuesday (Aug 29) convicted of one count of aggravated rape and two counts of aggravated sexual assault by penetration. 

Four other charges — attempted robbery, abducting the victim to compel her to illicit intercourse, outrage of modesty and criminal intimidation — will be taken into consideration in sentencing him. 

The court heard that around midnight on Jan 13 last year, Singh was cycling in the Serangoon Gardens area “looking for victims to rob”. 

The victim, a cleaner from China, had just ended her work shift and was turning into a back alley on her way home when Singh identified her as a target. 

He cycled past her, threw the bicycle to the ground, then ran towards her, armed with a Swiss army knife. 

Having no chance to run away, the victim flung her handbag — containing about S$800 in cash, among other items — over a fence into the compound of a private house along the alley. 

When Singh demanded money, all she could say was “no money” before pointing to the house. 

He then decided to rape the victim after failing to rob her.

Still holding the knife, Singh led her to the end of the alley and gestured her to sit beside a flight of steps.

He undressed and forced the victim to perform sexual acts on him.

Although she tried to resist him, the victim was also “extremely frightened and terrified that (Singh) would kill her by stabbing her with the knife”, the court heard. 

Later, he forced her to remove her clothes and raped her. 

The court heard that the tormented victim felt nauseous and wanted to vomit, but did not dare to go against Singh’s demands as she was “put in fear of death” because he used the knife to threaten her.

Before he left her, Singh warned the victim not to report the incident by showing her a slitting gesture against his own throat. 

The victim then called her boyfriend and told him that she was almost robbed, but left out how she was sexually assaulted as she felt embarrassed. He then called the police. 

Singh was arrested three days later while cycling around Tavistock Avenue Park, also in Serangoon Gardens.

Singh — who committed the acts after absconding from the Reformative Training Centre (RTC) where he was placed for past offences — was assessed to have “prominent anti-social and narcissistic personality traits”, but did not suffer from any major mental illness at the time of the offences.

His past offences included rioting, criminal intimidation and theft.

A psychiatric report also showed that Singh did not show genuine remorse for his actions, and his regret “appeared to be related more to the fact that he will likely be punished for what he did”.

Singh will be sentenced at a later date. 

He could be jailed up to 20 years and given up to 12 strokes of the cane for each charge of aggravated rape and aggravated sexual assault by penetration.