28 years’ jail, 24 strokes for man who repeatedly raped daughter, sexually abused her best friend

• The Singapore permanent resident first targeted his child when she was aged about three to seven
• She kept silent as she was afraid her parents would get a divorce
• He also admitted to sexually abusing the girl’s best friend in his condominium unit
• High Court judge Mavis Chionh noted that there was sexual grooming and that the girl had been robbed of her childhood innocence

SINGAPORE — A man who gave into his paedophilic urges and repeatedly raped his young daughter over a seven-and-a-half year period was sentenced to 28 years’ jail and the maximum 24 strokes of the cane on Monday (April 26).

The girl was aged about three to seven when the Singapore permanent resident began his depraved acts. He showed her pornographic videos, including one of a child having sex with her father, and first raped her when she was around nine.

He also sexually abused his daughter’s best friend, who is from a Southeast Asian country, when she came over to watch television or play.

His crimes came to light after she revealed what he had done to her during a religious ceremony in her home country.

The 44-year-old man, who is originally from a country in Europe, pleaded guilty to three charges of statutory rape last month. He cannot be identified because of a court order to protect the victims’ identities.

He has since divorced his wife, who is also a permanent resident.

High Court judge Mavis Chionh told the court on Monday that the “greatest tragedy in this case is that (the girl was) robbed of her childhood innocence by her own father”.

The judge took into consideration 19 other similar charges for sentencing, including his possession of 296 obscene videos in his electronic devices.

He was meant to care for the girl when his wife was not home or out of the country, but exploited his position of authority and control in order to satisfy his own sexual urges, the judge added.

There was also sexual grooming in how he exposed the girl to pornography to “normalise, in her young mind, the rapes and sexual assaults he was perpetrating against her”.

His sentence was backdated to July 3 in 2019 when he was arrested.

WHAT HAPPENED

The court heard that the man and his wife were married in his home country and moved to Singapore, where they lived in condominium complexes in the northeastern region.

He committed the crimes from around December 2011 to June 2019.

His daughter was a Primary 5 student when he was arrested.

He first sexually assaulted his daughter in their first residence while accompanying her in the shower. He then developed a sexual desire for the girl, realising he was a paedophile and there was “no turning back”, the prosecution told the court.

The frequency of the sexual acts increased after they moved to their second residence nearby.

He would target his daughter when his wife was not around.

The girl told him “no, I don’t want to” the first time he tried to rape her. He told her to “try for a few minutes”, showing her pornography before sexually assaulting her.

She kept silent because she was scared and did not want her parents to divorce.

She got to know her best friend, who was also her schoolmate and lived in the same condominium, in 2016. The friend's parents regarded the man and his wife as close friends.

Once, when his daughter’s friend came over, he kissed the girl on the lips and told her to keep it a secret.

This then escalated into a sexual assault against the girl and his daughter while they watched a movie in the master bedroom.

The friend declined to go over again after this in order to avoid him.

The last time he raped his daughter, on June 29, 2019, his wife was out of the country.

After the family watched a movie and the domestic helper put the youngest child to bed, the father asked his daughter to go to the master bedroom and violated her after watching a short pornographic video.

By then, her friend had returned to her home country. She was asked to confess her sins during a First Communion ceremony, a frequent rite of passage for Catholic children.

It was then that she revealed that the man sexually assaulted her. Her parents took her to file a police report when she returned to Singapore.

When police officers went to his home on July 1, 2019, they found his daughter alone. He was arrested after they interviewed her.

The authorities discovered numerous obscene films in his devices, many featuring young and prepubescent female children.

After his arrest, he was diagnosed with paedophilic disorder.

A psychiatrist from the Institute of Mental Health found that this had no substantive contributory link to his crimes, since his cognitive functioning and his volitional or emotional capability to break the law in order to act on his sexual desires was not significantly impaired.

He had no other major mental illnesses and was not of unsound mind.

For each charge of rape of a minor under 14, the man could have been jailed for up to 20 years and fined or caned.