Man jailed for underage-sex offence that came to light after girl’s urinary tract infection

SINGAPORE — He first met her at a chalet in 2014, but it was when their mutual friends bumped into each other again in November that year that they got to know each other.

Identifying himself as “Zayden”, he invited the girl, who was then 14, and other friends over to his home for drinks on the night of Nov 4, 2014.

The man, who was 24 at the time, later had unprotected sex with the girl in his parent’s bedroom.

On Friday (Sept 14), he was sentenced to 16 months’ jail by District Judge Hamidah Ibrahim after pleading guilty last month to one count of sexually penetrating his victim. Both parties cannot be named due to a court order.

The man had invited the girl and other mutual friends to his house in Pasir Ris as his parents were not home.

When she requested to use the toilet, he directed her to use the one in his parent’s bedroom.

He entered the bedroom and closed and locked the door behind him.

When the teen came out of the toilet, he asked her to sit on the bed, then hugged her and lay down beside her.

He asked her to be his girlfriend, but the girl replied that she was uncertain. He then kissed and had sex with her.

The encounter only came to light in August 2016 when the girl had a bout of urinary tract infection.

She informed the doctor during the examination that she had had sexual intercourse.

A police report was lodged because the teen was under 16 at the time.

The man was previously convicted for similar offences, Deputy Public Prosecutor Amanda Han told the court. In 2009, he was sentenced to probation for having sex with his girlfriend who was 12 at the time.

In May 2016, he was sentenced to 16 months’ jail for having sex with a 14-year-old girl in Aug 2014, whom he had been seeing for a month.

DPP Han urged the court to impose a jail sentence of at least 18 months, saying the man had persisted in offending despite his earlier convictions.

She argued that there was a “clear escalation” in his actions in this case, from hugging and kissing to sexual intercourse.

That he did not reveal his real name to her at any point during the encounter showed “clearly an asymmetry in power in this situation”, DPP Han said.

For sexual penetration of a minor under 16, he could have been jailed up to 10 years and/or fined.

In our earlier report, we incorrectly stated that the man was sentenced to 18 months' jail. He was sentenced to 16 months' jail. We apologise for the error.