• A 65-year-old man was jailed for molesting his adopted daughter since she was six years old
• The victim is now 18 
• She only realised that what her father was doing was wrong during sex education class in 2014
• In 2018, he gave her money and told her that he could thus touch her

SINGAPORE — For about a decade, he had been molesting his adopted daughter from as early as 2009 when she was six years old. 

His acts were described by a judge on Thursday (Nov 18) as containing “an insidious element of sexual grooming” and his daughter did not know that what he did was wrong. 

It was only when she was receiving sex education lessons in Primary 5 that she realised that she had been sexually assaulted by her father. 

However, even after that, she did not dare tell anyone about it for fear that no one would believe her.

The man, now 65, was jailed for 32 months and 10 weeks on Thursday. He pleaded guilty to two counts of molestation. 

Another count of molestation and one of sexual exploitation of a child was taken into consideration during sentencing.

The man cannot be named due to a court order protecting the identity of his now 18-year-old daughter.

MOLESTED HER AFTER KINDERGARTEN EVENT

The court heard that one of the offences happened in 2009, when his daughter had just returned home from her kindergarten graduation performance.

As she was resting on the bed, her father grabbed her hand and used it to move over his groin.

Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Eugene Lee said that at that time, she did not react because she did not understand what her father was doing. 

The father then pulled off his shorts and repeated the act. He also touched her private parts.

In 2018, the girl got into a heated argument with her mother who threw and broke the girl’s mobile phone in anger.

The next day, her father gave her some money and told her to use it to repair her phone. 

While her back was turned, her father suddenly hugged her from behind and placed his hands on her waist, DPP Lee said. 

He then whispered to her: “Now that I have passed you money, I can touch you.” 

She was 15 years old at the time. When he groped her chest, she immediately elbowed him and returned to her room.

DAUGHTER AVOIDED HOME  

Ever since the girl attended the sex education class in 2014, she started finding excuses to stay out late to avoid returning home and seeing her father, DPP Lee said.

On Oct 1 last year, her mother found out that the girl had been drinking alcohol and chased her out of the flat. 

DPP Lee said: “The (girl) had been drinking alcohol to suppress her negative feelings arising from the sexual assaults (her father) had perpetrated on her over the years.”

Not having anywhere to sleep for the night, she called a friend who advised her to speak to a trusted adult. 

She spoke to her school counsellor and told the counsellor about how she had been sexually assaulted.

The next day, she met her counsellor and principal and they took her to a police station to report the offences.

DPP Lee said that when the man was interviewed by police, he admitted that he had been “touching” his daughter for “many years already” despite knowing that it was wrong to do so.

Court documents did not state whether the girl’s mother knew about the sexual assaults.

The prosecutor added that the man and his wife, who worked as hawkers, had adopted the girl when she was an infant and the girl believed him to be her biological father.

As parents, the girl’s mother was the disciplinarian while her father generally doted on her, until she learnt about what sexual assault was in school.

The girl has since rented a flat and is now working part-time while schooling to support herself, the prosecutor said.

‘A SAD CASE’

The man’s lawyer Raphael Louis said that the father has a heart condition and asked that the judge not impose more jail time in lieu of caning, since the man is above 50 years old and cannot be caned.

“There’s no excuse for what he did, Your Honour. There is no ‘however’, there is no ‘but’,” he said, adding that what he is asking is a punishment that is “fair, but not crushing”.

District Judge Janet Wang decided that additional punishment in lieu of caning was warranted, noting that “his acts of depravity were brought to bear on the victim from childhood to adolescence”.

“This is a sad case that will take many years for the parties to mend ties and achieve reconciliation, if at all.”

For each charge of molestation, he could have been jailed for up to two years, fined, caned, or any combination of the three.

Molestation committed against a person under age 14 carries a maximum punishment of five years, jail, fine and caning.