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Teacher who molested 12-year-old student drops appeal against conviction, 2.5-year jail sentence

SINGAPORE — A primary school teacher has dropped an appeal against his conviction and sentence for molesting a former student, then aged 12, and received a stern warning for his remaining charges.

Teacher who molested 12-year-old student drops appeal against conviction, 2.5-year jail sentence
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  • A primary school teacher was jailed for two-and-a-half years and given three strokes of the cane last year
  • He shared a father-son relationship with a victim he molested, lending the boy’s mother money and acting as his guardian
  • He has since discontinued his appeal against his conviction and sentence
  • The prosecution then directed the police to administer a stern warning for his two remaining charges of causing hurt and showing the boy porn

SINGAPORE — A primary school teacher has dropped an appeal against his conviction and sentence for molesting a former student, then aged 12, and received a stern warning for his remaining charges.

The 36-year-old Singaporean is now serving his two-and-a-half-year jail term after discontinuing his appeal, the Attorney-General’s Chambers (AGC) told TODAY on Tuesday (April 5).

The teacher cannot be named due to a court order to protect the boy’s identity.

Following a trial in the State Courts, he was found guilty of three charges of outrage of modesty and attempted outrage of modesty, committed on June 15 and 16 in 2017 during a sleepover at his home.

He was then sentenced in September last year to the jail time and three strokes of the cane.

On Monday, at a pre-trial conference to deal with the two other charges which were stood down during the trial, he was granted a discharge amounting to an acquittal for them.

These were for voluntarily causing hurt by grabbing the boy’s wrists and slapping his cheek, and exhibiting an obscene object by showing him a pornographic video on his laptop during the sleepover.

The AGC said: “After careful consideration of the facts and circumstances of the case, including the sentence already imposed on the accused, the AGC directed the police to administer a stern warning, in lieu of prosecution, for the stood down charges.”

After careful consideration of the facts and circumstances of the case, including the sentence already imposed on the accused, the AGC directed the police to administer a stern warning, in lieu of prosecution, for the stood down charges.
The Attorney-General's Chambers

The Ministry of Education said on Tuesday that it will follow up with disciplinary proceedings with the conclusion of the court case.

He had been suspended from service since July 2017 and no longer taught in a school before serving his jail time.

The man had been the boy’s Primary 6 form teacher in 2016 and eventually developed a close relationship with him.

The victim, now 16, was raised by a single mother who told the court that the teacher had been like family to them, even lending her money several times and acting as the boy’s guardian. 

Bank records tendered to the court showed that he transferred sums of between S$100 and S$500 to her bank account on several occasions from January to June 2017.

When the boy graduated and went to secondary school that year, the teacher began giving him tuition lessons and once threw a surprise birthday party for him at home.

He also occasionally drove the boy to school and took him home every day.

On June 2, 2017, another schoolteacher saw the man kissing the boy on his cheek, neck and near his ears at the McDonald’s outlet at the Woodlands Civic Centre that evening. She took a photograph of them holding hands and eventually submitted a formal report to the boy’s school.  

The sleepover took place about two weeks later.

The man first touched the boy’s genitals over his shorts, then later on the same day, he put his hand into the boy’s underwear to touch his genitals. The next morning, he tried to touch the boy’s crotch again.

During the trial, the man claimed that he only meant to check the boy's "injured body part".

When school reopened on June 27, the boy’s school counsellor called her mother to ask if she was aware of the molestations.

However, she asked the school to delay reporting the matter to the police because she was facing family issues and had already planned to meet the man.

A district judge noted that following the sleepover, the boy became “insecure and easily angered”, even getting a tattoo on his arm that said “trust no one”.

Related topics

court crime molestation molest minor teacher sexual crime

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