Jail for cleaner who molested colleague multiple times within an hour

SINGAPORE — While in a drunken state at the workplace, a 34-year-old cleaner molested his colleague multiple times despite protestations from the victim.

On Wednesday (Dec 21), the man was sentenced to 26 days' jail after pleading guilty to two charges of outrage of modesty, with two other charges taken into consideration in sentencing.

The names of the Malaysian cleaner, the victim and their workplace were not shown on court documents.

The court heard that before the incident at about 5.30pm on Nov 14, the man had drunk a glass of whiskey and was intoxicated.

The victim, a 26-year-old Singaporean working as a waitress there, was cleaning cutlery at the bar counter when the cleaner walked behind her and touched her right buttock with his hand.

Shocked, she turned around to see him smiling and laughing at her.

Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Bryont Chin said: “She did not confront him as she was unsure of what to do, and instead resumed work.”

The man later extended his arm to try and touch the woman’s shoulder, but did not manage to do so because she flinched and moved to the other side of the counter.

About two minutes later, he followed her into a cold storage room and repeatedly asked her to drink with him. When she eventually relented and drank some alcohol, he then flipped her left breast with his hand. 

The victim got angry and said “oi” as a protest.

At about 6.25pm, while the victim was sitting on a stool at the bar counter, the man walked behind her and touched her back, causing her to flinch and resist his action by moving her elbow.

Undeterred, he touched her buttock.

She initially did not make a police report or inform their boss because she was “scared to be involved in a confrontation with the accused”, DPP Chin said.

However, after confiding in her fiance, he confronted the cleaner two days later and made a police report.

In seeking a three- to four-week jail term, DPP Chin said that the cleaner's guilty plea should not be given too much weight because he was caught redhanded in closed-circuit television recordings.

Pleading for a lighter sentence, the man, who did not have a lawyer, told the judge through a Tamil interpreter that he was apologetic for what he did “playfully” without knowing the serious consequences. 

He also asked for a deferment of his jail term, saying that his wife was about to give birth soon and that he would need some time to inform his family and settle some personal matters.

District Judge Ronald Gwee granted a deferment of one week.

For each conviction of using criminal force to outrage the woman's modesty, he could have been jailed for up to three years, fined, caned or given a combination of any of these punishments.