Senior public servant on trial for molesting two female colleagues
SINGAPORE — A senior public servant is accused of molesting two of his female colleagues over the course of about nine months, both at their workplace and on overseas work trips.
SINGAPORE — A senior public servant is accused of molesting two of his female colleagues over the course of about nine months, both at their workplace and on overseas work trips.
The 66-year-old began standing trial for nine molestation charges in a district court on Monday (Feb 10). He cannot be named due to a court order to protect his alleged victims’ identities, and the name of their workplace was redacted.
Court documents stated that he allegedly committed the offences from mid-March to mid-December in 2016.
For the first woman, who was 43, some of the alleged offences happened at their workplace, where he is said to have hugged her “so tightly such that her breasts were pressing against (his) body” on three occasions. He also squeezed her buttocks and pressed his private parts against her shoulder.
For the other woman, who was 55, he is said to have hugged her and kissed her on her shoulder in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. And when they were in Yangon, Myanmar, he placed his hand on the middle of her thigh and took her hand to place it on his own thigh.
The trial was held in-camera on Monday as one of the women took the stand, and the media was not allowed to attend. It continues for the rest of the week.
The public servant is represented by Mr Gary Low and Mr Terence Tan from Drew & Napier.
If convicted of molestation, he could be jailed up to two years, fined, caned, or any combination of the three. However, offenders above 50 years old cannot be caned by law.
Any public servant who is a Singapore citizen or permanent resident is deemed to have committed an offence in Singapore if he does it in the course of his employment overseas.
The man’s employer and the ministry in charge of his employer declined to comment when contacted by TODAY.