Man jailed for underage sex with ‘girlfriend’ half his age

SINGAPORE — An alert secondary school teacher noticed that a 12-year-old pupil had been missing from her class for several days.

Concerned, the teacher met the student to ask about her absences and the girl then revealed that she had been having sex with a man twice her age.

The disclosure happened in August 2016 and a police report was filed. A month later, the man was arrested.

On Thursday (June 13), the 28-year-old Singaporean man was jailed 47 months, or close to four years, after he pleaded guilty to three charges of penile penetration of a minor under the age of 14, with or without their consent.

Three other charges were taken into consideration.

The girl, now 15, and all parties involved in the case cannot be named to protect her identity.

A FAMILY FRIEND

The court heard that the man got to know the girl when he was 22 back in 2013.

She was then the Primary 3 classmate and best friend of his stepsister.

The girl started getting closer to the man’s family in 2014 when she began spending more time in their home. She even joined them for family outings.

Court documents showed that the girl had been alternating between living with her maternal grandmother and her paternal grandfather because her mother and stepfather were in jail. Her biological father, a substance abuser, was being rehabilitated at a halfway house.

On August 11, 2015, the man asked the girl to be his girlfriend.

She was hesitant at first due the huge age gap between the two of them; she was 12 and he was 24.

However, he told her that it did not matter and she was eventually persuaded. They remained in a romantic relationship up until police investigations started in September 2016.

During this period, the man would cook for her, pick her up from school, help her with her homework and even gave her money when she was short of it.

The girl’s grandparents were aware of the relationship between the two, but they were unable to stop them from meeting.

The sexual encounters started about a month or two after they got into a relationship.

Sometime between September and October in 2015, the man told the girl that he wanted to have sex. She was reluctant but  gave in to him in the end.

The court was told that he did not use a condom and the girl was a virgin at the time.

The two continued to have unprotected sex at least once every two to three weeks.

Once, the man’s stepsister caught them in the act, but he told her not to tell anyone. He even got the victim to apologise to the stepsister to placate her.

It escalated to a point when the man began suggesting having unnatural sexual intercourse with the victim.

On one occasion, between September 2015 and August 2016, the girl had gone over to the man’s home to play computer games when he told her his intention.

She refused because of the discomfort that she experienced but he persisted and forced himself on her such that she was unable to get out of his grip.

She then decided to shout for help and he stopped.

When the girl finally told her school teacher these details, the police report was made.

‘CYNICAL EXPLOITATION OF THE VICTIM’

In his mitigation plea, defence lawyer Henry Lim said that the man accepted his wrongdoing even though the sexual encounters were “within the framework” of being in a relationship.

“He had not planned these for lustful purpose but out of a love relationship, albeit the girlfriend being an underage,” Mr Lim said.

He added that the man had intended to marry the girl, with the consent of both his parents and her father.

In his sentencing remarks, District Judge Marvin Bay said: “There was a cynical exploitation of the victim in the guise of a romantic relationship that took on sexual dimensions which the victim would be barely able to understand, much less handle on a psychological or emotional basis.”

While he noted that the man had a clean record, the judge also highlighted that there were several instances in which force had been used on the victim.

For each charge of penile penetration of a minor under 14, the man could have been jailed up to 20 years and fined or caned.