Man admits to sexually abusing 11 girls, including his daughter, grandchildren, nieces and students
The man, now 71, committed his crimes over more than 35 years. He preyed on his two granddaughters after he was released from prison for similar crimes.
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SINGAPORE: For more than 30 years, a man sexually abused 11 young girls including his daughter, his two grandchildren, four nieces and four other children.
The girls were between the ages of five and 10 when he started preying on them, court documents showed.
The four other girls were children who attended an enrichment centre he ran with his wife, or were tutored by him when he conducted tuition lessons at home.
The man, now 71 and suffering from a rare blood cancer, admitted to 33 charges for various sexual offences on Friday (Jul 24).
He pleaded guilty to 10 of them for offences against six of his victims. The remaining 23 will be taken into consideration when he is sentenced in September.
The man raped his daughter, then 15 years old, in 2005. He told her not to tell anyone because the family would split up and that it would be her fault that her siblings did not have a family, the court heard.
After sexually assaulting his seven-year-old granddaughter in 2023, he told her that if she told anyone about the abuse, she would not be his favourite grandchild.
The man, who uses a wheelchair, cannot be named to protect the identities of his victims.
Deputy Public Prosecutors Jiang Ke-yue and Ronnie Ang argued for 32 to 36 years’ jail for the man.
They cited a report by a doctor with the Institute of Mental Health, which noted that the man reoffended even though he was imprisoned twice for such offences in 1999 and 2020.
The man is a danger to children, the report found.
“The accused had severely breached the position of trust reposed in him as family and teacher, and trampled on the very dignity of the various children he was meant to safeguard and nurture,” the prosecution argued.
He started preying on his granddaughters after he was released from prison in 2021, and his latest crimes came to light in 2023.
After his granddaughters told their mother about the abuse, the man’s daughter, or their aunt, came forward about the abuse she had faced.
The man began sexually abusing his daughter in 1997, when she was six to seven years old, the court heard.
He would bring his wife and daughter out in his van to run errands. After dropping his wife off, he molested his daughter while she was in the front seat next to him.
His daughter was confused by his actions but he told her that he was showing affection, the court heard. While she did not think anything was wrong since he was her father, the sexual abuse in the van eventually escalated.
The man would also enter her room when she was sleeping or ask her to come to the master bedroom when her mother – his wife – was not around. He made her watch pornography with him, sexually abused her and raped her once at the enrichment centre he owned in 2005.
While he raped her, the man’s daughter, then 15, cried and asked her father why he did that to her. After the rape, he stopped sexually abusing her.
When his most recent offences came to light in 2023, his first granddaughter was seven years old and the man was 68 years old. He showed her pornography, molested her and sexually abused her on multiple occasions between 2022 and 2023, the court heard.
In his investigative statement, the man admitted to having feelings for his granddaughter.
In 2023, he also molested her younger sister, who was five years old at the time.
On Aug 4 that year, the younger girl told her mother that the man had touched her. When her mother asked if this had happened to other children, the older sister also revealed what the man had done to her.
The girls’ mother then lodged a police report.
For raping a girl under 14, he could face between eight and 20 years’ jail and a fine. For sexually assaulting his victim by penetration, he could face up to 20 years’ jail and a fine.
He also faces additional jail terms and fines for sexually exploiting a child, showing pornography to a child, unnatural sex and outrage of modesty.
He cannot be caned since he is above 50.
Source: CNA/hw(gr)
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