Man raped flatmate in her room after asking her to be in a relationship with him

SINGAPORE - After repeatedly asking his flatmate to be in a relationship with him, a man barged into her room naked and raped her the month that he moved in, in 2023.

On Nov 4, Keivan Motallebi, 34, an Iranian national, was sentenced to 10 years’ jail and six strokes of the cane.

He pleaded guilty to a charge of rape committed against the victim, then 26 years old.

When prosecutors highlighted that his crime was aggravated because the victim was raped in the unit she regarded as her home, Motallebi, who did not have a lawyer, responded that he also lived there.

In sentencing, High Court judge Mavis Chionh said it was beside the point he lived in the same flat.

Justice Chionh noted a sexual assault committed in a victim’s own home is considered aggravating because the home is where a person is entitled to feel the most secure.

The court was told the victim, a foreigner, came to Singapore in 2021 for work, and rented a room in a three-bedroom unit.

In January 2023, Motallebi moved in and stayed in the master bedroom with the female landlord.

Later that month, he asked the victim to have a chat with him in the living room, and asked her to be in a relationship with him after she told him she was single.

She replied she needed time to consider and returned to her room, said Deputy Public Prosecutor Rimplejit Kaur.

On Jan 31, 2023, after the victim returned home, Motallebi approached her and again asked her to be in a relationship with him.

When she was back in her room, she heard a knock, and saw him standing outside naked.

She tried to close the door, but he pushed his way into the room and pinned her down on her bed.

The victim repeatedly told him she did not want to have sex with him, but he raped her.

After the assault, he apologised to her.

She made a police report on Feb 1, 2023, and Motallebi was arrested that day.

Pleading for leniency on Nov 4, he told the court: “I’m very sorry. I wish I could change the past, but I cannot do that.”

Selina Lum is senior law correspondent at The Straits Times.