Man who sexually assaulted oldest stepdaughter gets nearly 12 years’ jail, caning

SINGAPORE – A 44-year-old man who sexually assaulted his oldest stepdaughter in the shower in 2015 has been sentenced to 11 years and eight months in jail and 12 strokes of the cane.

The man made his four stepdaughters shower together before he isolated the victim, then 12 to 13 years old, from her sisters and told her to shower alone in another toilet.

On three occasions, he soaped, scrubbed and applied lotion on her body. He also sexually violated her on the third occasion.

In sentencing the man on Oct 23, Justice Aidan Xu said deterrence is needed to ensure that young persons are not exploited or harmed by those in authority around them.

Xu said: “It must be underlined that young persons are not objects or playthings for their elders.”

The man cannot be named due to a gag order that prevents the identification of the victim, who is now 24 years old.

He denied committing any of the acts, and claimed trial to one count of sexual assault by penetration and three counts of committing an obscene act with a child.

He was convicted of all four charges on Oct 6.

According to court documents, the victim’s mother married the man in December 2008.

The victim testified that in 2015, when her mother was not home, the man told her and her three sisters to shower together in the common toilet.

The four girls, who could shower themselves and would normally shower separately, obeyed him because they were afraid of him.

The victim said on three occasions, he entered the common toilet and told her to continue showering in the master bedroom toilet alone. She did as she was told.

She testified that he joined her in that toilet and scrubbed her body.

After she stepped out of the toilet, he applied lotion all over her.

On the third occasion, the man sexually violated her after soaping and scrubbing her.

In January 2016, the four sisters and their mother left the flat. The couple’s marriage was dissolved that month, and the divorce was registered in November 2017.

Between 2018 and 2019, the victim told her then boyfriend, who is now her husband, and her sisters about the assaults.

In 2020, her then boyfriend advised her to seek professional help as she suffered from nightmares and flashbacks, which affected her studies and resulted in her harming herself.

This led to the victim telling her mother and current stepfather about what the man had done to her.

On July 9, 2020, she lodged a police report stating her former stepfather had molested her.

During the trial, two of her sisters testified there were instances where the man took the victim to the master bedroom toilet midway through their communal showers.

In convicting the man on Oct 6, Xu said the man’s denial did not raise any reasonable doubt, and that much of his testimony was contradicted by that of the victim and her sisters.

The judge found no basis for the assertion that the girl and her family members had fabricated the allegations.

“Any unhappiness or disquiet about the accused would have been dissipated, as they had little or no contact between them after the marriage of the mother ended,” he said.

The judge added that there could have been an innocent explanation for why the man scrubbed the girl’s body and applied lotion over it, but the man chose not to offer any evidence on why he may have done so.

Given the man’s denial of the incidents, all that was before the court was the victim’s description of what happened, he said.

The judge said the irresistible inference to be drawn was that the actions were not done with any innocent purpose, and the only available explanation was that an obscene act had been intended.