A woman renting a room in an HDB flat claimed that she had been molested by a ‘ghost’, but the ‘phantom’ turned out to be a very human culprit instead.
Last May, the victim reportedly felts someone entering her room while she was asleep, kissing her and touching her chest and private parts.
While she could only see a “dark shadow” at the time, subsequent CCTV camera footage showed that the assailant was actually her landlord.
The landlord was eventually arrested but pleaded not guilty to two counts of indecent assault. The trial is currently still underway.
According to Shin Min Daily News, the woman, now 30, appeared in court to testify about the incident on Monday (29 Aug).
She shared that she and her boyfriend had rented a room in the defendant’s HDB flat in end-May last year.
On 5 Jun 2021, the landlord apparently threw a party to welcome the couple, complete with food and alcohol.
The woman eventually started to feel a bit drunk, so she decided to take a shower and head to bed.
Later on, she awoke suddenly when she felt someone kissing her mouth, as well as touching her breasts and private parts.
She thought it was her boyfriend at first, but when she turned around, she could only see a “dark shadow”.
Although the woman couldn’t see the culprit’s face, she noticed that the person had hair on their head. Since her boyfriend was bald, she was certain it wasn’t him.
About 10 minutes after the “shadow” left, the woman’s boyfriend returned to the room after his shower.
She told him about what happened. Since there were only two men in the house, including the woman’s boyfriend, they suspected that it may have been the landlord who came in.
However, the boyfriend also wondered if the woman could have encountered a ghost as she only saw a “dark shadow”.
“My boyfriend had heard that the landlord and his wife often travel to Thailand to pray to the gods,” she explained.
What’s more, there was supposedly a locked storeroom in the unit, leading the couple to question if the landlord may have the habit of “raising little ghosts”.
Since they believed there was a possibility it wasn’t the landlord who committed the crime, the couple did not call the police initially.
Instead, they secretly installed a security camera, and the woman stopped sleeping in the nude.
On 14 Aug 2021, the landlord threw another party, once again offering wine and beer.
After dinner, the woman went back to her room and fell asleep while waiting for her boyfriend.
CCTV footage played in court shows the woman sitting on her bed at around 12.56am.
A few moments later, the door opens and a hand reaches in to turn off the lights. The room goes dark, and the camera switches to night vision.
The landlord then enters the room and begins touching the woman’s chest and hair, awakening her in the process.
Upon realising that the lady was awake, the landlord was shocked and apparently asked, “Your boyfriend is taking a shower. Are you okay?”
Stunned, the woman said she was fine, and the landlord left the room and closed the door.
When the boyfriend got back to the room, the couple checked the CCTV recording together and confirmed that what had happened wasn’t a hallucination.
The woman told the court that she was so upset that she started crying and wanted to move out immediately.
On 16 Aug 2021, the couple found a new place and informed the authorities about the previous landlord.
Shin Min Daily News reports that when the pair told the landlord they wanted to move out, he did not stop them.
In fact, when the boyfriend asked the landlord’s wife to refund their deposit, she even returned the rent they had paid in advance.
The 38-year-old landlord was eventually arrested and charged in court, but he pleaded not guilty to two counts of indecent assault. The trial is currently still ongoing.
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Featured image adapted from Guillaume TECHER on Unsplash.
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