SINGAPORE — A 61-year-old man with a history of molesting women on buses was on Monday (March 25) sentenced to four months’ jail for violating a woman, again on a bus.

The man, Liew Choon Lee, pleaded guilty to a charge of using criminal force to outrage modesty.

In seeking the sentence imposed, Deputy Public Prosecutor Vishnu Menon noted that Liew has a history of committing similar offences.

“There is a pattern of going on public transport double-decker buses, sitting behind young female victims and reaching forward to touch them,” DPP Menon said.

The 21-year-old victim cannot be named due to a court order to protect her identity.

The court heard that on Nov 18 last year, Liew boarded a double-decker bus headed towards his mother’s house in Chua Chu Kang.

He sat on the upper deck behind his victim.

Less than 10 minutes after he boarded the bus, Liew slipped his hand between the bus window and the seat in front of him and touched the victim underneath her armpit, near her left breast.

On feeling the touch, she quickly turned around to see who it was touching her.

“At the victim’s reaction, the accused quickly retracted his left hand, hitting it on the bus’ side window in the process. He leaned back into his seat and looked back at the victim,” DPP Menon added.

Feeling violated, the woman left her seat and went down to the lower deck of the bus. 

Liew alighted at the next stop.

Court documents did not mention how the offence was brought to the attention of the authorities.

Seeking a four-month jail term, DPP Menon noted that although the current offence was relatively of “low gravity”, Liew had been convicted and sentenced for identical offences in the past 20 years.

In 2002, he touched a 20-year-old woman on a bus and was sentenced to three months’ jail upon conviction.

In 2012, he molested a 17-year-old on a bus. The following year, he molested the same victim on another bus. He was sentenced to eight weeks and 10 weeks’ jail respectively for the two offences.

In 2018, he pleaded guilty to a charge of molesting a 27-year-old woman on a bus, in an incident that happened the year before. He was sentenced to six weeks' jail for this.

“The accused has demonstrated an unusual commitment to molesting young women on public buses. However, there is no evidence of any psychiatric condition that bears any contributory link to his offending,” DPP Menon said in his written submissions.

Liew, who appeared in court without any legal representation, said that he was “ashamed of myself”.

Pleading for leniency, he also said that he was worried about his family and his mother’s condition, though he did not elaborate.

For using criminal force with the intent to outrage modesty, Liew could have been sentenced to three years’ jail, fined or caned, or given any combination of these punishments.