SINGAPORE — What was meant to be a casual gathering of colleagues on a weekend took a turn for the worse when a male colleague carried a drunk co-worker into a hotel bathroom so that another co-worker could rape her. 

On Monday (March 20), a 19-year-old pleaded guilty to abetment by intentionally aiding a 20-year-old man to commit rape against a 23-year-old woman.

Due to a court order to protect the identity of the victim, none of the three individuals, who are Singaporeans, can be named. In court documents, the teenager was labelled as A1 and the co-accused as A2.

District Judge Carol Ling called for a reformative training report to be prepared for A1 and he is next scheduled to return to court on April 17.

Reformative training is a regimented rehabilitation programme for those under 21 who commit relatively serious crimes.

A2’s case remains before the courts.

WHAT HAPPENED

Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Lee Zu Zhao told the court that the rape took place in the early hours of Nov 29 in 2021.

At that time, A1, A2 and the victim were all working as warehouse assistants.

The prosecutor said that A2 found the victim attractive and wanted to pursue a relationship with her despite her being married. 

Sometime that month, all three were added to a WhatsApp chat group named “Sunday Outing”, which included seven other colleagues, where they decided to meet on Nov 28.

That afternoon, A1 and A2 made a reservation for a room at Hotel Royal along Newton Road, so that they could use it to drink and sleep over for the night.

They then met the other colleagues at Lau Pa Sat food centre for dinner before eight of them went to the hotel room at around 11pm.

There, the group drank alcohol until around midnight before the hotel’s concierge informed them that they were in breach of Covid-19 regulations, and that three members of the group would have to leave or the police would be called in for enforcement.

At the time, Covid-19 regulations allowed for a maximum of five people to be together for gatherings.

Despite the warning, there were still six people left in the room at 2am, including A1, A2 and the victim.

The victim, who was drunk, laid down on the bed to sleep beside A2.

At some point, A1 saw A2 hugging the victim, so he offered to carry the woman to the toilet where he knew the older man intended to commit rape.

After A1 carried the victim to the toilet, A2 went in, closed the door and proceeded to rape the woman.

DPP Lee said that when A1 heard the woman “coughing and gagging”, he knocked on the toilet door and asked A2 to “share” the victim with him, to which A2 said no. 

A2 then dressed the victim before he carried her back to bed.

Before the victim woke up at 7am, A2 told A1 and a third individual, a 20-year-old woman (B1), that he had sex with the victim and the trio agreed to tell the victim that she had “woken up and followed A2 into the toilet herself”. 

When the victim got up to use the toilet, she suspected that she had been raped when she felt sore. When she questioned B1, the younger woman simply said that she did not know what happened since she was asleep.

Later that day, A2 sent a phone message to the victim to apologise for having taken advantage of her.

He then said that she had gotten out of bed and followed him into the toilet, to which the victim replied that his account “did not seem to tally”. DPP Lee did not elaborate on what this meant in court.

DPP Lee added that several other colleagues had sent messages to the victim to ask if she was okay, because she had been “unusually quiet that morning”. She did not reply to any of them.

She felt embarrassed about what might have happened and did not return to work on Nov 31.

On Dec 1, she resigned from her company and refused A2’s attempt to talk to her.

She then made a police report on Dec 3, after her husband convinced her to do so.

DPP Lee said that the victim’s husband discovered what had transpired after she rejected his attempts to get intimate.

TODAY understands that B1's case is still being reviewed by the prosecution.

Anyone found guilty of rape can be jailed up to 20 years and are also liable to a fine or caning, while those found guilty of abetting an offence can be given the punishment provided for the offence.