SINGAPORE: An allied educator who was also the coach of a co-curricular activity (CCA) in a secondary school molested a total of 13 students over more than two years.
The 39-year-old man, who cannot be named due to gag orders imposed by the court, pleaded guilty on Thursday (Oct 27) to six charges.
They include multiple charges of molestation, procuring an indecent act by a young person and using insulting behaviour causing alarm and distress. Another 23 charges will be considered in sentencing.
The court heard that the offender was an allied educator since 2008, at a school not named in court documents.
He taught English and Literature and was the coach for a CCA that was similarly not identified in court documents.
Between the end of 2015 and 2018, the man molested 13 students who were members of the CCA in a laboratory. The blinds in the lab were always closed on his instructions, and he would remind students that “whatever happens in the … lab stays in the … lab”.
The man also molested students during overnight chalets organised for CCA members. He was the only coach or teacher who would stay overnight with the students.
BOY MOLESTED IN CHALET
Sometime in end-2015, a 13-year-old boy attended the annual CCA chalet upon the offender’s invitation.
On the second night of the chalet, while others were playing card games, the boy fell asleep on the sofa in the living room.
He woke up later because he felt someone molesting him, and realised he was lying on a bed. He could not recall how he ended up there.
The offender was pressed against his back. Scared, the boy did not know how to react and pretended to be asleep. He waited for about half an hour for the offender to fall asleep before feeling it was safe to leave.
Between June 2016 and December 2017, the offender asked this same boy for a kiss on the lips in the school lab.
The boy was reluctant but felt pressured to comply, so he kissed the man’s lips. He felt disgusted and extremely uncomfortable, but kept silent about both incidents.
He felt helpless and did not know who to approach for help. He did not confide in his friends or family as he did not know how to explain the situation and was unsure of how they would react, the prosecutor said.
He called the helpline of the Sexual Assault Care Centre at the Association of Women for Action and Research (AWARE) in December 2017 as he felt extremely stressed about the incidents.
He told them he had been molested by his CCA coach since Secondary 1, but he did not respond to follow-up calls and messages because he felt afraid.
MAN’S LEWD CONVERSATIONS
Between March 2017 and December 2017, a 14-year-old boy went to the lab to discuss matters about the CCA with the accused.
During the conversation, the accused said that the boy’s leg was hairy and asked if it was similarly hairy elsewhere. The boy did not reply.
The man then made a lewd comment and offered to show the boy his own hair. The boy rejected him, but the man plucked out a hair and held it near the boy’s face.
The boy felt shocked, insulted and disgusted, the court heard.
The man also molested a 13-year-old boy in October 2018 while they were in the lab. He asked the boy a lewd question while molesting him, shocking the boy who asked to go to the toilet.
The boy did not dare to confront the offender or tell him about his discomfort as he was afraid of the man.
After this, the boy went to the lab less frequently as he was afraid he would be molested again. He would go there only if many other students were around.
Sometime in mid-2018, the offender used a metal blackhead extractor to extract a blackhead from a 15-year-old boy’s nose while they were in the lab.
After doing so, he asked the boy to sit on his lap. Thinking the man wanted to extract more blackheads, the boy complied.
However, the man turned his chair around so that they were facing away from the rest of the students in the lab. He then spoke to the boy while molesting him.
The case came to light in October 2018, when one of the CCA members told his mother that he had witnessed the coach touching and kissing some of his CCA mates.
On Thursday, the judge said he intended to have the offender examined at the Institute of Mental Health.
His case was adjourned and he will return to court in November.
CNA has contacted the Ministry of Education for more information.