Mother recorded telephone conversation with son after alleged rape

SINGAPORE – In a phone conversation with her son hours after he allegedly raped and molested her, the 56-year-old victim had repeatedly asked him what he had done to her in their one-room flat.

A six-minute audio recording of their phone conversation was played in court on Wednesday (July 20) and Tuesday during the trial of the 33-year-old safety coordinator, who is pleading not guilty to one count each of rape, aggravated molest and molest.

The alleged offences took place at about 2.30am on Oct 4, 2013, while the victim was asleep and alone in the flat. After the alleged incident, the woman left for her daughter-in-law’s place at about 6am.

Along the way, the victim used one of her mobile phones to call the accused — the second of three sons from her first marriage — and used her other one to record their conversation about the alleged incident, said the prosecution in its opening address earlier.

Speaking in Malay, the victim was heard to be asking her son in the recorded phone conversation: “What did you do to me, you forget eh?”

At one point, the accused was heard saying in the recording that he remembered everything that happened, adding that he liked it and “want (it) again”.

There was one day where he “did (something) like that” to her while she was sleeping, the man was also heard telling his mother.

The recording also revealed that the man had told his mother multiple times to go home whenever she said she did not want to return to the flat, and could not face him.

During the call, the accused also told her to leave her current husband, who is his stepfather, and divorce him.

But the woman was heard telling the accused that she loved him as her son, while he loved her in a “different way”.

“You are my son ... not my boyfriend,” she added later.

During the cross-examination of Mr Mohammad Rashikin Rajah, a Malay translator from the Criminal Investigation Department, on Wednesday, the defence also tried to clarify if certain Malay terms could hold different meanings.

Mr Rashikin had translated the audio recording of the phone conversation. For instance, while he agreed with the defence that “sakit” could mean that the victim was ill or in pain, Mr Rashikin later told the prosecution that he had translated it as the victim saying she was in pain, since before she used that word, the victim had asked the accused what he had done to her.

When probed by the defence, Mr Rashikin also noted that terms such as “rape” and “sexual intercourse”, among others, were not mentioned during the phone conversation.

The trial continues on Thursday.