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Ex-Muay Thai instructor gets jail, caning for sexually assaulting woman after trial exercise class

SINGAPORE — Seizing the opportunity when a prospective student asked whether his gym offered Thai massages, Tan Wai Luen massaged her before sexually assaulting her with his finger for a few seconds.

Tan Wai Luen, 31, was sentenced in a district court to seven years and four months’ jail and four strokes of the cane.

Tan Wai Luen, 31, was sentenced in a district court to seven years and four months’ jail and four strokes of the cane.

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SINGAPORE — Seizing the opportunity when a prospective student asked whether his gym offered Thai massages, Tan Wai Luen massaged her before sexually assaulting her with his finger for a few seconds.

On Friday (March 6), the 31-year-old instructor, who is no longer employed there, was sentenced to seven years and four months’ jail and four strokes of the cane. 

The divorcee and father-of-three was convicted after a trial of one charge of sexual assault by penetration, in relation to the incident that took place on Oct 1, 2016.

The victim, aged 33 at the time, cannot be named due to a court order to protect her identity. 

She had gone for a trial class at the Encore Muay Thai gym in Joo Chiat — touted as Singapore’s first all-female Muay Thai gym — that afternoon.

She testified that she asked if the gym offered massages and Tan touched her inappropriately while giving her a massage. He stopped doing so when she shouted at him but continued massaging her for about 10 more minutes before she left. 

One of the gym’s co-founders made a police report after the victim told her what had happened.

Tan claimed during the start of his trial in court that he could have accidentally touched her private parts, before changing his testimony to say that he could not have touched her there at all as he had stopped performing the massage on her thighs.

On Friday, District Judge Ong Chin Rhu said that Tan had abused the victim’s trust “to a certain limited extent”. They had not known each other before that day.

The judge added that in her view, Tan had not planned to commit the offence but instead took the chance upon the victim’s enquiry into Thai massages. 

He had told the victim that he was the only one trained to give them and then locked the gym’s main door from the inside.

Tan also sexually assaulted the woman for “a few seconds”, which showed a “relatively low” extent of offending in comparison to similar cases, the judge said.

After being sentenced, Tan — who did not have a lawyer — told the court: “I admitted that I made a false report to the police, but in my position I did not sexually penetrate my finger into the victim.”

District Judge Ong responded that he had already been convicted and sentenced, and asked whether he intended to begin serving it. 

He replied that he intends to appeal against the court's decision.

For sexual assault by penetration, he could have been jailed up to 20 years, as well as fined or caned.

Related topics

sexual assault court crime massage gym

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