‘Monster’ dad gets 25.5 years’ jail, caning for prostituting wife, sexually abusing daughter and niece

SINGAPORE — In what the prosecution branded the “most aggravated case of human trafficking in Singapore”, a 27-year-old man was sentenced to 25-and-a-half years’ jail and the maximum 24 strokes of the cane on Tuesday (Feb 19).

The unemployed father of two had pleaded guilty in the High Court to prostituting his wife, forcing their six-year-old daughter to perform sexual acts on him and molesting his 13-year-old niece in a hotel room.

He cannot be named in order to protect his victims’ identities.

The man began physically assaulting his wife while they were dating and ramped up his abuse after they got married.

In 2016, after they had been married for four years, he demanded that she provide sexual services to pay for their infant son’s milk powder and other household expenses, imposing a “daily quota of customers”.

Between June and late August that year, she ended up servicing 138 customers and earning nearly S$11,000 — money that she handed over to him.

Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Eunice Lau noted that this was the first case of its kind, “where someone coerced his own wife to prostitute herself for financial profit”.

The man also forced their young daughter, now nine, to perform sex acts on him.

While he suspected he had a sexually transmitted disease, he did not get diagnosed until after his arrest in August 2016.

On another occasion, he asked his wife to take her niece, now 16, out of school on the day of her Primary School Leaving Examination (PSLE) oral exam and lead her to a hotel room. There, he groped the adolescent girl’s private parts and placed a pillow over her face to muffle her screams.

DPP Lau, who argued for at least 22 years’ jail and 24 strokes of the cane, said: “The facts speak for itself. He is a monster; the sordid sexual depravity of his transgressions are unprecedented, and involved him exploiting the three most vulnerable women in his life whom he had every responsibility to protect.”

His sentence was backdated to his date of remand: Aug 21, 2016. He was also fined S$12,000.

HIT HER WITH DUMBBELL, COACHED HER IN PROVIDING SEXUAL SERVICES

The court heard that the couple began their relationship in 2008 and got married in 2012. The man began abusing her in 2009, such as by slapping her face and hitting her head against the cupboard.

The physical abuse increased in frequency until he was assaulting her at least once a week from June 2015. This continued throughout her pregnancies.

She was so afraid of him that she did not dare to use her mobile phone or contact her family members, as he explicitly forbade her from doing so.

Neither did she report the abuse to the police, as he threatened to kill her if she told anyone.

The couple and their two children initially lived with the man’s mother. Between 2010 and 2015, the family relied on the wife’s monthly S$1,800 salary as a receptionist and office assistant because the man was unemployed.

When his wife stopped working in September 2015, they found themselves strapped for cash, and thought of aborting their second child to ease the situation but did not.

It was in June 2016, after their second child was born, that he forced his wife to prostitute herself to pay for their three-month-old baby’s diapers, milk powder and other general household expenses.

He rejected her request to apply for a job, insisting that prostitution was a “quick and lucrative” means of earning money to sustain their family. However, he himself remained unemployed.

At first reluctant, the wife eventually succumbed because she was afraid that his physical assaults would intensify if she continued disobeying him.

Following his instructions, she began soliciting customers on a website that he used to engage prostitutes. He schooled her in industry jargon, dictated her fees and directed her to respond to interested customers.

If she did not abide by a daily quota of customers, he would force her to make up for it the next day by getting more customers.

He also asked her to secretly record the encounters and give him the recordings afterwards.

Throughout her ordeal, he continued to assault her when he got jealous — once even hitting her with a dumbbell -— or if she failed to respond to his calls, secure enough customers or earn enough money.

ABUSED DAUGHTER AND NIECE

On July 20, 2016, the man moved his family to Value Hotel Balestier after having an argument with his mother.

It was during the stay at the hotel that he forced his daughter to perform sex acts on him, while his wife was in the toilet. She stopped him when she saw what was happening, but he threatened to beat them up if they told anyone about it.

On Aug 1, 2016, he insisted that his wife take her niece to him. She refused but when he threatened to continue hitting her, she dragged the girl out of school despite the girl's resistance.

She took the girl to Value Hotel Thomson, where the man proceeded to molest the girl.

On Aug 20, the man’s mother called the police to report the abuse, after her grandaughter — the man’s daughter — told her that he had done “something bad” to her.

A psychiatrist from the Institute of Mental Health observed in his report that the man “appeared to be somewhat boastful of his sexual exploits”. He also appeared to have anti-social personality traits.