4 years’ jail for former sec school teacher who sexually abused student in his car

• A secondary school teacher was jailed for sexual assault
• He targeted two 15-year-old girls, one in 2015 and the other in 2017
• He taught English and Literature at the second victim’s secondary school
• When he assaulted the second girl, he told her to imagine that he was her ex-boyfriend

SINGAPORE — A 33-year-old former secondary school teacher was jailed four years on Thursday (Nov 26) after sexually assaulting a student in a car and then telling her to keep silent about what he did.

He had pleaded guilty earlier this week to three charges of sexual penetration of a minor and committing an indecent act with a young person. 

The Singaporean man cannot be named due to a court order to protect his victims’ identities.

He taught English and Literature at a secondary school in the eastern part of Singapore, but resigned from the job in September 2018. The school also cannot be named.

He will begin serving his sentence next Monday. His lawyer Edmond Pereira said that the man’s sister is coming from New Zealand and he wants to see her.

ABOUT THE CASE

The court heard previously that the teacher first targeted a 15-year-old girl in 2015 by showing her an obscene video and then putting his hand on her thigh while they were in his car.

Two years later, he set his sights on another 15-year-old female student.

He began sending the second victim phone text messages in late 2016.

In early 2017, they began communicating over messaging platform Telegram and social media application Snapchat. He asked her to join the school’s debate team, of which he was in charge, but she did not do so.

On his invitation, they once chatted for an hour at the void deck of the block of flats where she lived.

Shortly after that on Feb 25 in 2017, which was a Saturday, he again asked if she wanted to meet. He told her not to tell anyone when she agreed to go for a ride with him.

He picked her up later that evening, complimented her on her looks and drove towards Tampines Street 34.

He parked at an open-air car park in front of a playground and suggested that they remain in the car where there was air-conditioning.

While she was looking at her mobile phone, he leaned over and began touching her thigh and neck, asking if she trusted him.

Not knowing what to say, she replied that she did.

He then began kissing her neck and groped her under her shirt before sexually assaulting her.

He asked her if she liked it and she said no, but he told her to imagine that he was her ex-boyfriend. He continued to kiss her and tried to make her perform a sex act on him, but she refused.

He drove to a nearby multi-storey car park and tried to kiss her once more but she pulled away.

They then got food at a nearby McDonald’s outlet and spent some time in the Marina Bay area before he drove her home. He told her not to tell anyone what had happened.

When she got home, she blocked him on various mobile apps.

The following Monday, she confided in a few close friends about the assault. 

She suffered flashbacks of the incident, feeling like she could not trust people she had just met and that she should not go to school in order to avoid him

Staff members of the school’s management eventually came to know of what the teacher did.

They visited the girl’s home on March 2, 2017 when she stopped going to school, and took her to the Tampines Neighbourhood Police Centre that afternoon to make a police report.

For sexual penetration of a minor, the teacher could have been jailed up to 10 years or fined, or both.

For committing an indecent act, he could have been jailed up to five years or fined up to S$10,000, or both.