Private tutor admits to molesting student, 15, several times in his home

SINGAPORE — On the pretext of helping a 15-year-old girl complete her homework, a mathematics tuition teacher asked his student to stay behind after class on at least five occasions.

After everyone else had left, the private tutor would then molest the girl in a room in his home, where he held the classes. Initially, she kept quiet out of fear, but eventually confided in a male friend, who told the girl’s school what had happened.

The school told her mother, who then took her to the police to make a police report.

On Monday (June 17), the 48-year-old Singapore permanent resident and Indonesian national pleaded guilty in the State Courts to three charges of using criminal force to molest the girl, who was 15 years old at the time of the offences.

Both the victim and perpetrator cannot be named due to a court gag order to protect her identity.

The teacher is expected to be sentenced on July 9, after District Judge Hamidah Ibrahim asked for an impact statement from the victim.

The court heard that the victim attended the mathematics tuition classes for about eight months from July 2017 to March 2018. She was in Secondary Three at the time.

She took the classes three times every week — from 5 to 7pm on Mondays, from 7 to 9pm on Wednesdays, and from 9 to 11am on Saturdays.

He molested her multiple times during February and March 2018, after asking her to stay back after class to complete her homework. On some of these occasions, she was wearing her school uniform.

On one such occasion, after everyone else had left, he molested her over her shirt for a few seconds, before sliding his hand under her top and molesting her under her underwear for about 30 seconds. He then lifted her shirt for a few seconds.

Court documents also stated that on one occasion, he hugged her and kissed her on the lips.

At the time, he had about 40 students in total. About five to 12 students attended each tuition class.

“After being molested by the accused, the victim felt molested, uncomfortable, shocked and speechless by the accused’s actions. She kept the incidents of molest to herself because she was afraid to speak up and did not know how to react,” Deputy Public Prosecutor (DPP) Delicia Tan told the court.

On March 9, 2018, she decided to confide in her friend about the molestation over WhatsApp, indicating that her teacher had become more brazen in the last incident two days earlier.

After the friend told the school what happened, the school got in touch with the girl’s mother on March 11, 2018. She then took the girl to Pasir Ris Neighbourhood Police Centre.

DPP Tan asked for two years and one month’s imprisonment and six strokes of the cane. His lawyer, Mr Chua Eng Hui, did not ask for a specific jail term but sought three strokes of the cane for his client.

For each charge of using criminal force to outrage the girl’s modesty, the teacher could be jailed up to two years, fined, caned, or any combination of the three.