14 years’ jail, caning for man, 21, over sexual assault of multiple young girls and other offences

SINGAPORE – A 21-year-old recalcitrant offender has been sentenced to 14 years’ jail and 15 strokes of the cane over a string of offences including sexual assault of young girls.

The youth committed the offences when he was between 15 and 17 years old, and his victims were between the ages of 13 and 16.

Prosecutors said the accused committed several of these offences while on station and court bail. He eventually went on to commit violent crimes such as rioting and voluntarily causing hurt with a dangerous weapon.

The young man pleaded guilty on Sept 21 to charges including sexual assault involving penetration, outrage of modesty, aggravated outrage of modesty, statutory rape, rioting, and causing hurt by dangerous weapons.

He admitted to nine charges in total, with the court taking 29 other charges, including for threatening to and distributing intimate images and recordings of other victims, into consideration for sentencing

Justice Dedar Singh Gill, in delivering the sentence in the High Court, said the man showed a woeful disregard of the law as he had committed a number of the offences while he was out on bail, adding that the sheer number and variety of offences was disturbing.

There is a gag order to protect the identities of his victim. The youth cannot be identified as he was below 18 years old when he committed the offences.

Court documents showed that the offender was actively seeking out girls out through social media or mutual friends between November 2020 and December 2022.

He befriended the first victim on Instagram when she was 15 and he was 16.

On May 14, 2021, he invited her to his home and she agreed, as she had feelings for him. Deputy Public Prosecutor Jane Lim said the offender led her to believe he had the same feelings for her.

He had sexual intercourse with her over the next two days.

On May 30, 2021, he ended up penetrating her anally, causing her pain. The court heard he had behaved aggressively during most of the encounters, causing the victim to bleed on several occasions.

In July 2021, he got to know another victim. She was only 13 years old.

After chatting online, they met up on July 20, 2021. He took her to a staircase landing at a HDB block where he sexually assaulted her and made her perform sex acts on him.

The victim told her friend about the incident shortly after and a police report was lodged on July 30, 2021. The youth was arrested on Aug 30, 2021.

While out on bail, he got to know another girl, 14, through mutual friends in April 2022. After chatting with the gir online, he invited her to his home on Aug 12, 2022.

She agreed after he told her that two other friends were there. When she arrived, he asked both friends to leave, closed his bedroom door and told the girl he was going to punish her for being late.

The young man pinned her down on his bed by her shoulders and molested her. He proceeded to expose himself and tried to get her to perform a sex act on him.

When she refused, he grabbed her head and attempted to force her to perform the act. He also grabbed her hand, forcing her to touch his genital area.

The court heard the youth became angry when she continued to resist his attempts, and eventually told her to leave his home.

The girl told her uncle about the assault on Aug 23, 2022. Her uncle, who was then 29 years old, got the offender’s number and texted him that he wanted a meeting.

The offender decided to rope in four friends to confront the girl’s uncle. The offender brought along a knuckleduster and karambit knife to the uncle’s flat on the day of the meeting.

When the group arrived, the young man saw the girl’s uncle sitting alone at the void deck and confronted him. He pointed the karambit knife at the older man and threatened to blind him.

After the older man explained that all he wanted was to speak to the offender about his niece, the youth kept the knife.

He then assaulted the older man, punching him in the face and chest several times while wearing the knuckleduster. He continued to punch the older man’s abdomen when he fell to the ground, before his friends pulled him away.

The girl’s uncle received treatment at a hospital where he was found to have suffered from face and elbow contusions due to the assault.

More assaults

Just days after assaulting the girl’s uncle, the youth attacked his next victim, a 13-year-old girl he befriended on Instagram, in a handicap toilet at Northpoint Shopping Centre.

While in the toilet on Aug 27, 2022, he grabbed the girl’s face and kissed her on the lips without her consent. He also sexually molested her.

He attacked his next victim, whom he met online as well, in a handicap toilet at Jurong Point on Dec 20, 2022.

The youth persuaded the 14-year-old girl to enter the toilet with him so he could vape. Once inside, he forcibly kissed and sexually assaulted her.

She pushed him away but he continued to grope her, while exposing himself. He then forced her hand to his genital area, and told her she could not leave until he was satisfied.

When she continued to resist him, he pulled her hair and hit her head against the wall.

She eventually managed to get out and filed a police report on Dec 22, 2022.

The court heard the youth was affiliated with a street corner gang at the time of the offences.

On Aug 18, 2022, he was part of a group of five people who beat up a 14-year-old boy after a member of his gang claimed he was unhappy with the teenager.

The group brought the victim to a multistorey carpark in Ang Mo Kio and beat him unconscious, only leaving after hearing the police arriving.

The victim was admitted to the hospital and found to have sustained minor bruising and abrasions over his face and scalp.