Teenager pleads guilty to molesting younger sister twice; text message confession to friend led to arrest

SINGAPORE — A teenager pleaded guilty on Monday (May 29) to two counts of molesting his younger sister in her bedroom in incidents two years apart when she was between eight and 10 years old.

At the time of the offences, the victim and offender, now aged 17, were living together, in different bedrooms, in a flat with their parents, paternal grandmother and older brother.

The names of the victim and the offender cannot be published due to a court order.

The offences came to light because the offender sent phone text messages to a friend after the first incident in 2020, saying that he wanted to have sex with his sister.

However, for reasons not stated in court documents, the friend did not tell the offender's school teachers about the text messages until some time in 2022.

District Judge Carol Ling has called for a report on the offender's suitability for reformative training and probation before sentencing the Singaporean, scheduled for June 19.

FIRST MOLESTATION

Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Melissa Heng told the court that sometime in June 2020, when the victim was eight years old, the boy, who was then aged 14, had approached his sister and asked her to remove her clothes and underwear. He removed his own clothes as well, after his sister complied. 

At that time, the offender had been playing a game in her bedroom while the sister was watching videos on her mobile phone.

While they were both naked, the boy harboured thoughts of having sex with his sister and tried to act on these thoughts but was unsuccessful.

Confused by what was happening, his sister did not put up any form of resistance even though the boy had acted with the intention to sexually penetrate her, DPP Heng said.

He then took pictures of the naked lower half of the victim's body using his phone, before telling her to put her clothes on and leaving her room.

After the incident, the boy told his sister to forget what had happened and had also deleted the photos he had taken.

On Aug 8, 2020, the offender texted his friend and stated that he had taken photos of his sister for his own pleasure.

He added that he saw his sister's panties and admitted to "really wanting" to have sex with her.

SECOND MOLESTATION

Investigations also revealed that sometime between Feb 5 and July 27 last year, the offender and his sister were alone in her bedroom in the flat when he got her to sit on his lap, facing him.

At this point, the boy was shirtless with his bottoms pulled down to his thighs while his sister was wearing her top without any bottoms.

The offender then tried to engage in a sexual act with her but was unsuccessful. 

He told her to lay flat on the mattress while he proceeded to kneel on the mattress in front of her.

The court heard that while they were in this position, their mother returned home and asked what they were doing.

The offender lied to their mother, saying that he was "helping" his sister to check her private parts because "she was in pain".

Their mother believed him and told him to not do such a thing again.

The boy's actions were uncovered sometime later last year, when the friend he had texted in 2020 reported the incident to the offender's school teachers.

His parents met with the school principal on July 27 last year and were told about the text messages.

The siblings' father lodged a police report on Aug 5 after that, telling police officers: "I was notified that my daughter was molested."

Addressing the court on the prosecution's sentencing position, DPP Heng said that even though the accused is 17 years old, "deterrence is an important consideration" due to the serious nature of the offences.

She proposed that only a report on reformative training should be sought because the offending spanned a "long duration" of about two years.

The offender had "exploited the trust" that his sister had in him while committing the acts in the "sanctity" of her own home, DPP Heng added.

Compared to probation, reformative training is a more severe punishment for offenders aged 21 years and below as it requires the young offender to be detained in a structured environment for a minimum period of six or 12 months.