SINGAPORE — When a 17-year-old young man returned to his former secondary school to help conduct training for the National Police Cadet Corps (NPCC), he decided to molest a female fellow ex-cadet.

Under the pretext of finding a lost pencil, he lured her into a girls’ toilet cubicle, locked the door behind them and molested her. He also asked her to perform a sex act on him while she tried, unsuccessfully, to escape.

In a district court on Thursday (Nov 14), the youth — now a polytechnic student — pleaded guilty to one molestation charge. A second such charge will be taken into consideration for sentencing next week.

Neither he nor his 17-year-old victim can be named to protect her identity. The name of the school, located in Singapore’s north, was similarly redacted from court documents.

District Judge May Mesenas ordered the young man to be put in remand to assess if he is suitable for probation or reformative training.

COULD NOT OVERPOWER HIM

The court heard that the incident happened on Aug 2, after the training concluded at about 6pm.

While at the canteen with some friends, he lied to the victim that another female cadet had borrowed a pencil from him earlier that day and asked her to help him find it.

They searched some classrooms before deciding to check the girls’ toilets. Before entering, he asked her if anyone was inside and followed her in when they were sure it was empty.

He suggested entering the last cubicle, which was also the biggest one, on the pretext of locating the pencil. He then locked the cubicle door behind them and immediately grabbed her breast over her top.

She responded by kicking him, but he still persisted in touching her private parts over her skirt. She tried to push him away but failed.

Undeterred, he molested her again and asked her to perform a sex act on him, and when she declined, asked if he could perform a sex act on her.

Throughout this, she kept trying to escape but could not overpower him, Deputy Public Prosecutor Phoebe Tan told the court.

He would block her and push her away from the cubicle door whenever she tried to reach for it, grabbing her shoulders and directing her to the toilet seat.

She managed to break free only after a security guard called her phone, asking about her visitor’s pass. She took this opportunity to push his hands away, unlock the door and flee.

He apologised to her through a text message after this. She had also told her boyfriend, her sister and the NPCC teacher-in-charge about the incident.

Acting on the teacher’s advice, she lodged a police report.

Court documents showed that about a week earlier, on July 26, he had molested her in a flat. No further details were given.