'Horrific experience': 4 years' jail, 6 strokes of cane for man who molested teen in Golden Mile Complex

SINGAPORE — As two cousins chatted outside a toilet at Golden Mile Complex, they met a 19-year-old teenager wishing to enter the amenities, but they pushed her into a stairwell and asked her for sex. 

When she refused, one of the men stole her left shoe and left. However, Virut Supak continued to block the woman in the stairwell, and molested her.

On Wednesday (Nov 23), the 23-year-old Malaysian on a work pass who spoke in Thai pleaded guilty to outrage of modesty with wrongful restraint and was sentenced to four years’ jail and six strokes of the cane.

Another two charges — one similar charge and one for assault without provocation — were taken into consideration for sentencing.

Virut Supak's sentence was backdated to the date of his arrest on Aug 29.

His cousin, 23-year-old Lee Wei Hans, will be in court on Dec 15 to face similar charges.

WHAT HAPPENED

Sometime before 2.50am on Aug 29 this year, Virut Supak bumped into his cousin outside the toilet at Golden Mile Complex.

They had both been drinking with their own groups and continued to chat with other Malaysians there when the victim — a 19-year-old Malaysian — headed to the toilet.

The duo blocked her from entering the toilet and pushed her through a door that led to a stairwell next to the toilet.

Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Theong Li Han told the court that the duo touched her chest before asking her to “give them once” in Thai, implying that they wanted to have sex with her.

Angered that she kept refusing, Lee took her left shoe, which had slipped off earlier, and left the stairwell.

When she tried to leave, Virut Supak blocked her and molested her, trying to remove her clothes. He stopped only when the victim broke free of him.

She then ran down the staircase and called her friend for help — it was only then that Virut Supak opened the door to the staircase exit and let the victim escape.

“(She) proceeded to run to her friends and broke down crying while telling them about what just happened to her,” DPP Theong said, adding that her friends confronted the duo and a scuffle broke out.

Through a Thai interpreter, Virut Supak apologised and told the court that he was remorseful for his actions.

In his plea for leniency, he said that he had come to work in Singapore to support his mother who relies on him after his father died.

In sentencing, Deputy Principal District Judge Luke Tan said that what Virut Supak did was a serious offence against someone of a “relatively young age” and noted that he stopped only when the victim fought him off.

“The only significant factor in your mitigation is your plea of guilt, where you saved the victim from having to recall… her horrific experience.”

For outrage of modesty with wrongful restraint, Virut Supak could have been jailed up to 10 years and caned. The offence also carries a minimum jail term of two years.