SINGAPORE: Enraged to see his teenage fiancee with someone else after leaving him suddenly, a 21-year-old man assaulted the girl and drove her to a secluded road where he raped and attacked her.
The offender, who is now 23, was sentenced on Wednesday (Jul 19) to 12 years’ jail and six strokes of the cane.
He pleaded guilty to six charges, including rape, wrongful confinement, voluntarily causing hurt with a dangerous weapon, voluntarily causing hurt and threatening to distribute an intimate recording. Another six charges were considered in sentencing.
He cannot be named due to a gag order imposed by the court to protect the identity of the victim, who is now 20.
UNDERAGE RELATIONSHIP
The court heard that the offender and the victim were in a long-term “de facto spousal relationship from 2016”, with the original intention to marry when the girl turned 18.
The pair had underage sex when the girl was 12 and the boy was 15. After the girl got pregnant, she went to live with the offender’s family and gave birth to a daughter when she was 13.
The couple later became engaged.
In May 2021, the victim, who was then 17, initiated a break-up with her fiance and moved out suddenly. The offender, who was 21 at the time, heard from a friend that the victim was meeting a male friend at a playground and went down to the location in the wee hours of Jun 1, 2021.
He watched them hugging and holding hands for some time, and he became jealous and angry.
At about 3am on Jun 1, 2021, as the victim and the other boy were leaving, the offender emerged from his hiding place and charged at the boy.
The boy fled immediately, and the offender approached the victim, snatching her phone from her hand. He shouted and cried at her, asking her what he had done “to deserve this”.
He asked her for her password to unlock her phone, but the girl refused. This angered the offender, who lifted the girl off her feet and threw her onto the ground.
He assaulted her repeatedly and dragged her across the floor, before carrying her off. He then pulled her to the third floor of a car park where he threatened to throw her off if she did not reveal her password.
DROVE OFF WITH HER IN THE CAR
After this, he ordered the girl into his vehicle and drove off with her trapped inside. Along the way to Sungei Tengah Road, he continued to demand the phone password, punching and slapping the girl when she refused.
Eventually, she gave up the password to stop the blows. The offender checked through her messages and saw that she had been chatting with other men.
This angered him further. He parked his vehicle along a secluded road in Lim Chu Kang and told the girl that he would not kill her, but that he would disfigure her face.
He retrieved a pouch from the boot and took out a pair of scissors and a screwdriver, telling the victim that he would disfigure her so she would be unable to find another man in the future.
He then stabbed the girl in the thigh with the screwdriver, drawing blood. After this, he forced the victim to perform sex acts and filmed them, before raping her.
They got back into the vehicle, with the offender continuing to go through the victim’s phone while driving. He also held up the screwdriver thrice, smirking when the victim flinched.
The offender’s mother called him, and he admitted to her that he had hit the victim, who was bruised. He continued to drive around, interrogating the victim about the number of men she had met.
The offender’s uncle also called him, asking for their location. Eventually, he drove back to a car park where his parents and uncle were waiting for them.
The offender deleted all the videos on his phone and apologised for his actions.
His mother asked the victim if she wanted to go to the hospital, but the girl said she wanted to go back to her mother’s home instead, and the offender’s parents drove her home.
The victim’s stepfather later called the police and they arrested the offender the same day.
In her victim impact statement, the girl said she was very emotional and upset in the immediate aftermath of the offences, and was unable to work because of the bruises she suffered. However, she said she has since moved on.
The offender was examined by a psychiatrist who said he was suffering from major depressive disorder at the time of the offences, even though there was no significant contributory link.
The prosecution said the offender has one past conviction – he was placed on probation in 2018 for affray.
DEFENCE PLEADS FOR LENIENCY
Defence lawyer Ramesh Tiwary said his client and the victim were in a long-term relationship, with the victim living in the offender’s home with the consent of her own parents.
He said his client had cooperated from the start – with his parents, the victim’s parents and the police.
“He knew the police were coming, he waited for the police to come. During investigations, he admitted fully to what he had done,” said the lawyer.
“He was only four months past his 21st birthday,” said Mr Tiwary. “We urge your honour to consider that he had found his (almost) wife in the company of another man, they were intimate. He was immature and did not know how to react.”
“He became jealous, he became angry, and now he has a long sentence ahead of him because of that,” added the defence lawyer.
The young man has “got over the incident completely” and knows the relationship has ended for good. He still has contact with his daughter, who is now seven, said the lawyer.
“She visits regularly, and he is very close to her,” said Mr Tiwary.
In the lawyer’s mitigation plea, he said his client was working and supporting the victim and their daughter at the time of the offence.
On the day of the incident, a friend told the offender that the victim was with another boy at a Housing Board block. The offender was “very distraught” and went to see for himself if it was really her.
“When he reached there, he was heartbroken to see her with someone else,” said Mr Tiwary. “He observed her with another boy and saw that they were hugging, kissing and caressing each other. He felt very betrayed and hurt and lost his mind momentarily.”
LETTERS FROM VICTIM, OFFENDER’S MOTHER
The lawyer tendered letters from the victim and the offender’s mother to the court in mitigation.
The victim said in her letter that she has forgiven the offender, whom she said “has a good heart”, and has moved on.
The offender’s mother wrote in her letter that the offender was the second of her four sons. She had also married at a young age and started a family immediately, saying her family was close knit and raised their sons to show love and care for others.
She described her son as a “sensible young boy” who helped out with chores and took care of his younger brothers. All the sons are devastated by what happened, she said.
She explained that she had discouraged her son from being together with the victim as they were very young, and even alerted the police when they found the girl at their house in the middle of the night.
However, the family later learnt about issues in the victim’s family and accepted her into their own.
When the victim became pregnant, both the victim and the offender insisted on keeping the child.
With the family’s help, the victim gave birth to a daughter. The offender stopped accepting allowances from his parents and instead began working to support his own family while taking night classes.
After the pregnancy was uncovered, officers from the Ministry of Social and Family Development approached the offender’s parents about the victim and her well-being, suggesting that the victim be placed in a home for young girls.
“However, (the victim) was already a part of our family and we did not want her to leave our home. She was also the mother of our grandchild and it was (our son’s) and our responsibility to support her,” wrote the offender’s mother.
According to her, MSF eventually agreed for the victim to stay with the offender’s family, which she did until the incident on Jun 1, 2021.
The offender’s mother explained that the relationship between her son and the victim soured when they began to quarrel over things “typical of any teenager”.
They both wanted their freedom to live like any other teenager, but were weighed down by their obligations to their daughter, said the offender’s mother.
The young couple went for a marriage preparation programme in 2018, with the offender proposing to the victim about two years later so they could apply for a Build-to-Order flat.
“Shortly after their engagement, (the victim) suddenly announced to me that she wanted to leave my family,” wrote the offender’s mother.
She said this depressed her son, who began to have sleepless nights and loss of appetite. He tried to win the victim over with flowers and gifts, said the offender’s mother.
Three days before the incident, the victim “walked out” on the family, leaving her daughter behind, wrote the offender’s mother.
“What (my son) did was wrong – I know that what (he) did to (the victim) was wrong,” wrote the offender’s mother. “I accept that what (he) did to (her) is unforgivable and he will have to pay a price. But I also know in my heart that (he) was young and not prepared for this betrayal.”
She urged the court not to “destroy” her son’s future by imposing a lengthy sentence.
“And it will destroy his relationship with his daughter,” she wrote. “I bring (my granddaughter) regularly to visit her father in the prison so that she will not forget him … our son is in your hands now.”
JUDGE’S COMMENTS
In sentencing, Justice Dedar Singh Gill said this was “a case of the love between a very young couple gone sour”.
“I acknowledge the sentiments expressed by the mother of the accused in her letter to the court about the loving nature of the family. I also acknowledge that the victim has forgiven the accused,” said Justice Gill.
“But all this provides no mitigating value to the culpability of the accused,” he concluded.
He said the offender had “engaged in very violent offending” after he was enraged that the victim had left him for another man.
The judge allowed the jail term to be backdated to June 2021, when the offender was arrested and remanded.
The offender’s family, including his parents and daughter, attended the hearing, filling the seats in the public gallery.
After the sentence was passed, they waved to the offender, who waved back on the screen – he attended the hearing via Zoom from his place of remand.