10.5 years’ jail for former teacher who sexually abused 8 boys, fled overseas for 17 years

• A 56-year-old man convicted of sexual crime was a head of department in a primary school
• He targeted his victims during overnight camps, at his flat where he gave free tuition lessons and at a public swimming pool
• He fled to Indonesia where he lived for almost two decades 

SINGAPORE — While serving as a head of department in a primary school, a teacher sexually abused eight boys from 2001 to 2002.

He then absconded to Indonesia for almost two decades, repeatedly returning to Singapore under a fake name from 2015 to 2019. 

He was only caught when he wanted to withdraw his Central Provident Fund monies and needed to replace his lost Singapore identity card. 

The Singaporean man, now aged 56, was jailed 10-and-a-half years on Friday (Sept 25). This includes six months’ jail in lieu of caning as offenders above 50 cannot be caned by law.

Neither he nor the school he taught at can be named due to a court order to protect his victims’ identities.

He pleaded guilty to five counts of molestation, carnal intercourse against the order of nature and making false statements in Singapore visit passes.

The first two types of charges fall under the 1985 revised edition of the Penal Code.

Another 19 similar charges were taken into consideration for sentencing.

In mitigation, his lawyer Sadhana Rai from the Criminal Legal Aid Scheme told the court that her client has “remained on the straight and narrow” since fleeing to Indonesia and has not committed more crimes.

He is now married and has a child, she added. 

In sentencing, District Judge Salina Ishak said that the man had shown premeditation, sexually groomed the victims, and used psychological pressure and blackmail on them.

WHAT HAPPENED

At the time of his offences, he was in charge of an evening enrichment programme and would also organise annual camps for pupils that were usually held overnight.

During these camps, he sexually assaulted some of the pupils when they were asleep or alone with him.

He also invited some of these boys to his Housing and Development Board flat on Sunday mornings for free tuition lessons and to swim at a public swimming complex.

At his flat, he would ask one pupil to follow him to his bedroom where he would make the boys wash their private parts or perform a sex act on him.

At the swimming complex, he sexually abused them in a men’s toilet.

He targeted a 12-year-old boy whom he suspected was gay and had a “rather gentle character”, Deputy Public Prosecutor Chua Ying-Hong told the court.

He told the boy not to be shy with him if he wanted to be close to him “like a best student”.

The boy also went to the teacher’s flat to help him with some work. The man then made him perform a sex act on him in the shower.

The boy told his friend what had happened a few days later but did not confide in his parents or teachers out of fear of being scolded. He later told the principal.

Another victim, also aged 12, was molested while sleeping in the school gymnasium during an overnight camp.

On Nov 12, 2002, the victims and their friends decided to tell another teacher about the sexual assaults.

Two days later, the school’s principal told the man that he would be reporting the matter to the police and that he needed to hand in his passport to the school the next day.

The teacher then fled to Malaysia through Woodlands Checkpoint and flew to Surabaya, Indonesia where he eventually settled down in the town of Cirebon.

He obtained a fake identity card and passport, using it to return to Singapore 120 times from 2013 to 2019 to visit his family.

He was arrested in August last year.