On Wednesday (29 May), a 41-year-old Singaporean man, Nooradha Sanip, was sentenced to 10 months’ jail for having sex with a 15-year-old girl.
However, Nooradha is appealing against the sentence as he felt that it was too severe.
The offender defended himself by referencing a psychologist’s report that described his emotional roller-coaster due to his wife’s “wayang” illness, which impacted their sex life.
Nooradha had pleaded guilty in April to sexually penetrating a minor, with four other related charges considered at the time.
According to Channel News Asia (CNA), a court’s judgment made on 29 May had stated that Nooradha found the girl on an online dating app in March 2022.
Source: freepik, for illustration purposes only.
He then contacted her on Telegram and offered to be her sugar daddy, providing her with a weekly allowance.
While chatting on Telegram, the girl also gave him “sexy” photos of herself upon his request.
Both of them met and had sex twice in March and April 2022. For the first occasion, Nooradha paid the girl S$200.
The girl told him that she was 18 when she was actually 15. He did not verify her actual age.
The prosecution asked for a jail term of 10 to 12 months for engaging in sexual activity with an underage girl. However, defence lawyer Sinnadurai T Maniam requested for the shortest possible sentence within that range.
The lawyer argued that Nooradha’s guilty plea showed deep remorse and that he believed the girl was 18 years old.
He also added that a harsh sentence would cause significant hardship for his wife, who has blood cancer.
The defence presented a psychologist’s report to the court showing Nooradha’s account of his experiences during the time of the offences.
He claimed he was undergoing an “emotional roller-coaster” from early 2020 to December 2022 due to his wife’s “wayang” illness.
“Wayang” in Singlish means being fake or overly dramatic.
Source: Andrew Le on Unsplash, for illustration purposes only.
Despite multiple doctor visits and blood tests, her symptoms persisted without a clear diagnosis or treatment.
As his wife was in pain and was affected emotionally, their sex life dwindled to once every one to two months, prompting the offender to turn to pornography and masturbation as a “release”.
Dealing with negative emotions and a state of helplessness, Nooradha consequently chose to engage in paid sex services as a form of excitement and to give himself a sense of control.
Furthermore, he gained about 10kg from comfort eating, lost interest in his usual activities, and experienced fleeting suicidal thoughts and guilt towards his wife, the psychologist added.
The psychologist surmised that Nooradha had been suffering from a major depressive disorder during the time of the offences.
District Judge Sharmila Sripathy-Shanaz said that the psychologist’s report was “poorly reasoned”, adding that it failed to explain how the diagnosis was reached.
The report is “so deficient as to be valueless to the court in this case”, said the judge.
At present, Nooradha is out on bail pending his appeal.
Also read: NTU researcher admits to possessing child abuse material & requesting sex with underaged girls
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Featured image adapted from Andrew Le on Unsplash and freepik, for illustration purposes only.
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