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22-year-old jailed for repeatedly molesting younger sister with mild intellectual disability

SINGAPORE — A young man sobbed in court on Wednesday (Sept 1) as he pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 20 months’ jail for molesting his younger sister multiple times.

A teenaged girl who was molested by her brother told her counsellor what happened and a police report was made.

A teenaged girl who was molested by her brother told her counsellor what happened and a police report was made.

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  • A young man was sentenced to 20 months’ jail for repeatedly molesting his younger sister
  • The girl, who was 16 or 17 at the time she was molested, suffers from a mild intellectual disability
  • The man pleaded guilty to two counts of outrage of modesty with three more charges taken into consideration

 

SINGAPORE — A young man sobbed in court on Wednesday (Sept 1) as he pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 20 months’ jail for molesting his younger sister multiple times.

The Singaporean, now aged 22, was about 19 to 20 when he targeted his sibling. She is three years his junior and has a mild intellectual disability.

The accused was assessed by an Institute of Mental Health (IMH) psychiatrist to have borderline intelligence, but he did not meet the criteria for intellectual disability. His condition did not cause him to commit the offences.

He pleaded guilty to two counts of outrage of modesty, with another three charges taken into consideration for sentencing. He cannot be named under a court order to protect the identity of the victim.

At the time of his offences in 2018, the two siblings lived together in a four-room government-built flat with their father, aunt and two uncles. Their mother had moved out of the flat sometime in 2008.

In one instance, the victim returned home from school and was sitting on her bedroom floor to dress herself when her brother entered. Nobody else was home.

He then used a toothpick he had taken from the living room table to poke the victim’s private parts. When she cried out that it hurt, he discarded it in a dustbin, before molesting her again.

She told him to go away and put her top back on.

Sometime after this incident, she was lying in bed watching television when he sat beside her. They were alone in the flat.

He molested her and she moved his hand away. He told her not to tell anyone what he did. When she asked why he had touched her that way, he said that he had broken up with his girlfriend.

His offences came to light only on Dec 20, 2019 after she told her counsellor that her brother had sexually abused her.

A week later, the counsellor took her to Ang Mo Kio North Neighbourhood Police Centre to make a police report.

He was assessed twice at IMH last year. His intellectual abilities were found to be “within the extremely low to borderline range”, with his adaptive abilities “within below-average to average range”.

The victim was also examined in IMH and found to be functioning in the extremely low range of intelligence.

The assessment also suggested that she lacked awareness of social norms and the conventional consequences of behaviour, which meant that she would likely require continued guidance and supervision to help her guard against the undesirable influence or treatment by others.

VICTIM HAS BAD DREAMS ABOUT HIM

Seeking two years’ imprisonment, Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Sarah Siaw said that the victim had written in an impact statement about being “very scared” and having bad dreams about her brother. She is also uncomfortable with other men and boys.

Since October 2018, she has been staying in a shelter for teenage girls who are abused and in need of care and protection.

“We recognise he was a young offender and therefore would have lacked maturity… He was remorseful for what he did and pleaded guilty at the first opportunity,” the prosecutor added.

In mitigation, the brother repeatedly said that he would not do it again and pleaded for District Judge May Mesenas to give him a chance. He told her that he had worked as a restaurant waiter and wanted to become a photographer in the future.

When the judge asked if he had apologised to his sister, he said that he “never had the chance” to do it and had not seen her in a long time.

DPP Siaw noted that an IMH report stated that he had apologised for his offences.

His sentence was backdated to his date of remand — July 21 this year.

For each molestation offence, he could have been jailed for up to two years, fined, caned, or received any combination of the three.

Related topics

court crime molest outrage of modesty family

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