Man who repeatedly raped 14-year-old daughter loses appeal against conviction

SINGAPORE — The Court of Appeal on Thursday (Sept 19) dismissed a technician’s appeal against his conviction for raping his teenage daughter between 2014 and 2015.

He had been sentenced to 26 years’ jail and 24 strokes of the cane.

Judge of Appeal Tay Yong Kwang, who delivered the apex court’s decision, said that the High Court judge had fully considered the evidence and was justified in convicting the 36-year-old man of two rape charges.

The three appeal judges also rejected his request to remain out on bail of S$60,000 — posted by his wife — for two weeks, in order to settle family matters. He began serving his sentence on Thursday.

He cannot be named to protect the identity of his daughter who was 14 at the time of the offences.

In the High Court, the man had faced eight charges relating to eight separate occasions of rape in the family’s Punggol flat. 

The prosecution proceeded on two charges, concerning two rapes that happened on Nov 19, 2014 and in January 2015. He was found guilty of these charges last year.

His daughter testified during the 10-month trial that her father raped her eight times. Their family of five included her mother and two younger siblings.

The teen, who is now 19 years old, does not live with them anymore.

MOTHER DESCRIBED DAUGHTER AS REBELLIOUS

On Nov 19, 2014, the victim, her father and siblings were getting ready to head out and she went to change her outfit in the common bathroom. 

Her father forced his way through the door and she shouted for help but to no avail, instead hearing laughter from outside.

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After he raped her, the father warned her not to tell anyone what had happened.

In January 2015, the last of the eight occasions when she was raped, the victim was heading into the master bedroom when her father grabbed her, carried her to the bedroom which she shared with her younger sister and raped her.

During the trial, the teen’s mother described her daughter as "rebellious" and "stubborn" and claimed that she made up the allegations of rape because she "wanted her freedom" from the family.

The teen testified that she hesitated in reporting the rape to the police for fear of “breaking up” the family.

Both of her parents were 17 years old when she was born and she was raised by her grandfather until a few years before the rapes.

After she told her then-boyfriend what had happened, he arranged for her to meet with a school counsellor on Jan 13, 2015.

The counsellor reported the case to the school’s principal and it was referred to the Ministry of Social and Family Development. That same day, the father was arrested.

Investigations found his semen on the interior crotch area of a pair of pink shorts she wore during the last rape.

ARGUMENTS FROM THE DEFENCE

On Thursday, the man’s lawyer, Mr Peter Keith Fernando, put up several arguments to prove that his client should be acquitted.

He argued that the victim had never seen her father’s penis penetrating her private parts in the toilet, instead feeling him rape her from behind. She denied making up the rape during the High Court trial.

Mr Fernando said that while she testified she had shouted loudly for help, her siblings gave evidence that they did not hear her shouts.

Justice Lee Seiu Kin had convicted the man based on “unusually convincing evidence”, but Mr Fernando said that there was “not an iota of evidence” to corroborate the victim’s account.

“I ask Your Honours to bear in mind that she never saw her father with his pants down in the toilet, and pulling up his pants after he had raped her,” the lawyer added.

He also noted that “this was a case where her character was called into question”. 

She had run away from home several times and admitted that her parents “watched her moves closely and she was deprived of her freedom”.

The High Court judge had not sufficiently considered this when convicting the man, Mr Fernando argued.

The lawyer also told the judges that she had “no fewer than 18 to 19 relationships with men” at that age, to which Justice Chao Hick Tin replied: “That’s kind of a loose argument. At that age, you go around saying you’re boyfriend and girlfriend, then you say you don’t want to be friends anymore.”

Justice Woo Bih Li also noted that the victim was reluctant to lodge a complaint against her father.

Meanwhile, in relation to the second charge, Mr Fernando argued that the semen on the girl’s pink shorts could have been transferred there from her father’s dirty clothing. The family put all of their dirty clothing in a common laundry basket.

However, Justice Chao said he was “troubled” by where the semen was. “It’s as if you hit the jackpot, by throwing (the shorts there). It was contaminated in the interior part,” he added.

In dismissing the appeal against the conviction, the three appeal judges noted that Mr Fernando had withdrawn his appeal against the sentence. 

“We think the sentence was correct and amply justified, in any case,” they said.

CORRECTION: An earlier version of the story said that the man had lost his appeal against his sentence. This is incorrect. He lost his appeal against his conviction. We are sorry for the error.