SINGAPORE — An unemployed man yesterday pleaded guilty to robbing and raping a woman at knifepoint when she was on her way home in November 2010.

The woman, 24, cannot be named because of a court order.

She was about to walk out of the lift to her second-storey Housing and Development Board (HDB) flat when the man, Tan Jun Hui, 30, pulled her back into the lift, where he threatened her with a knife and robbed her of S$200.

When the lift reached the ninth floor, Tan dragged the victim to a staircase landing, where he robbed her of two mobile phones.

Tan, who has a five-year-old daughter, undressed the victim and tried to force her to perform oral sex on him. When she refused, he ordered her to lie on the floor and spread her legs. He then raped her.

Not wanting him to ejaculate in her, the victim, who was 21 at the time, offered to masturbate him.

Tan ejaculated into his underwear so that his semen would not be detected at the scene, and left.

The victim picked up the knife he had left behind and ran home. She told her parents what had happened and they immediately reported the matter to the police. Tan was caught 10 days later.

Deputy Public Prosecutors (DPP) Winston Man and S Sellakumaran asked for a sentence of 15 years and 24 strokes, noting that the victim now suffers from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

In a written submission, DPP Man said: “Taking into account the fact that the vast majority of Singaporeans live in HDB flats, offences of this nature have far reaching implications and greatly undermine public confidence in the safety of HDB estates.”

In mitigation, Tan’s lawyer, Mr B Mahtani, said Tan was intoxicated at the time and the entire incident had lasted less than 10 minutes. Also, Tan had stopped raping the woman when she offered to masturbate him.

Asking for a sentence of 13 years, Mr Mahtani said that, although Tan had previously been convicted of theft and criminal breach of trust, he had no sexual crime antecedents.

Tan will be sentenced next week.