SINGAPORE — Despite being given a 12-month conditional warning for molesting his younger half-sister when she was 10, a teenager went on to sexually assault her when she was 12.

The 17-year-old boy was sentenced on Monday (Dec 4) to 12 months of reformative training after he pleaded guilty earlier last month to a charge of sexual exploitation of a child and two charges of sexual assault.

Reformative training is a rehabilitative sentencing option for offenders above the age of 14 but below the age of 21, where they would undergo a comprehensive rehabilitation programme in a closed and structured environment in a reformative training centre. 

Five other similar charges were taken into consideration during sentencing.

Both the teenager and his sister cannot be named under a court order to protect the victim's identity.

Court documents prepared by Deputy Public Prosecutor Benedict Teong showed that the teenager and his sister have the same biological mother but different biological fathers.

He and the victim lived with their parents in a one-bedroom public flat. The teenager's twin brother and another younger sister were also part of the household.

After his molestation offences against the victim, a family safety plan was put in place by the Child Protective Service under the Ministry of Social and Family Development (MSF), which supports young persons who have been victims of abuse or neglect. 

SISTER MADE POLICE REPORT

Between November 2019 and January 2020, the teenager got up in the middle of the night to molest his then 10-year-old sister on a total of five separate occasions.

He would pull down her pants to touch her buttocks and private parts. The girl woke up but continued to pretend to sleep.

She eventually made a police report herself on Jan 30, 2020, stating that she was sexually assaulted. 

After the case was reported, the Child Protective Service prepared a family safety plan where the boy was made to stay with his aunt elsewhere to prevent a re-occurrence.

He was also not allowed to return to his parents' household and all contact was to be supervised by someone from the Family Service Centre or Child Protective Service.

The Family Service Centre under MSF provides support for vulnerable individuals and families with social and emotional issues, to coordinate holistic support that will help them work towards self-reliance and social mobility.

The police gave the teenager a 12-month conditional warning as well, telling him that he might be prosecuted for the molestation offences if he re-offended in the 12-month period.

MUM TOLD DAUGHTERS TO KEEP QUIET

After that, sometime in June 2021, the teenager returned to stay with his parents and the victim on the weekends.

The Child Protective Service was not informed of this. The mother told her daughters, including the victim who was then 12, not to tell the child protection officer or the school counsellor about this as well.

At around 3am on one of the days that he stayed over, the teenager asked the victim to get out of their parents' room to play computer games with him.

While they were playing in the living room, he asked her to have sex with him.

She initially refused but he repeated his request until she said "okay".

He then removed her pants and engaged in a sex act with her. 

About two months later on Aug 22 in 2021, he went to lie down on a mattress next to her and even though she had woken up, she did not respond to him. 

He then sexually abused her before going out to the living room to watch a movie on his mobile phone.

His offences were discovered when his sister confided in one of her close friends, who later decided to inform their school counsellor.

After speaking with the girl, the school counsellor contacted the child protection officer who had been overseeing the girl's case, and the police were alerted to the case.

'VICTIM OF PORNOGRAPHY'

Even though the prosecution sought a jail term of between five and seven years, defence counsel Jared Lee urged the court to sentence his client to reformative training as recommended.

Mr Lee said that the teenager is a victim of easy accessibility of pornography online and he had chanced upon such content when he was 12 years old.

He added that this had "warped" his mindset and though he was addicted to pornography, the boy has since gone through a tough process to abstain and refrain from touching himself.

For committing an obscene act with a young person below 16, the teenager could have been jailed for up to seven years or fined up to S$10,000.

For using criminal force to outrage the modesty of a person, he could have been jailed for up to five years, fined or caned, or been penalised by any combination of these punishments.

For performing a sex act with a part of a person's body, he could have been jailed for up to 20 years and fined or caned.