Children deserve to feel safe when they’re at home with their parents. Horrifyingly, this is not always the case.
Back in 2019, a 44-year-old man in Singapore sexually abused his 14-year-old daughter for several months.
This happened while the girl’s mother was undergoing treatment for cancer.
As a result, he was sentenced to 24 years’ jail and the statutory maximum of 24 strokes of the cane.
Channel NewsAsia (CNA) reports that the man first sexually assaulted his daughter, who is now 17, in May 2019. The assaults continued for several months.
In Oct 2019, he entered her bedroom when the rest of the family was asleep and proceeded to sexually assault and rape her.
Throughout this, the girl pretended to be asleep while her sister was on the mattress next to her.
The man did the same thing in November and December of the same year. During all the assaults, the girl would pretend that she was sleeping.
That December, his wife entered the room shortly after the assault happened and found him kneeling next to their daughter’s bed, naked from the waist down.
His wife hit him and asked him how he could do such a thing.
The girl then started crying and the commotion woke up her sister, who also cried.
According to CNA, the girl did not report her father’s crimes as she knew her family depended on him financially.
The Straits Times (ST) adds that she did not want to worry her mother, who was undergoing treatment for lymphoma, a cancer of the lymphatic system.
Additionally, the victim was afraid of her father, thinking he would be stronger than her if she tried to fight back.
Following the last assault, the wife moved the girl and her sister to the same bedroom as their other two siblings. That was when the attacks came to a halt.
On 1 Sep 2020, the man’s wife was hospitalised for treatment, ST reports. That very night, he went into the children’s room and sat on the girl’s mattress.
However, his son’s loud sneeze startled him and prompted him to leave.
The girl proceeded to inform her mother about the incident over text the next day.
A few days later, the mother returned home and confronted her husband, asking why he had gone into the children’s room. The man did not respond.
Wanting to protect her children from their father in her absence, the mother decided to apply for a personal protection order for them against their father.
She also took the victim to the police station. There, the girl reported that her father had raped her in 2019.
Sadly, the mother passed away from her illness in March last year.
The man later underwent an Institute of Mental Health (IMH) assessment and was found to have no mental illness. He was also determined to be of sound mind while committing the offences.
In court, the prosecutor said the man had abused the trust and vulnerability of his young daughter.
Furthermore, he had done so during a stressful time for the girl as her mother was going through cancer treatments.
The defence fought for a shorter jail term, citing his client’s shame and remorse. The man is also no longer in contact with his children, who “despise” him, CNA states.
Nonetheless, the judge said that the man had committed “the worst type of rape”, adding that no girl should find herself in the position of being afraid to report her father due to financial reasons.
On Monday (8 Aug), the man was sentenced to 24 years’ jail and 24 strokes of the cane.
According to ST, the children are now under the care of their relatives.
Sexual assault cases are always harrowing, but it’s even more appalling when it is committed by a parent against their child.
While the man’s punishment will never be able to take away the victim’s trauma, perhaps she will be able to find comfort in the fact that justice has been served.
And as the case comes to an end, hopefully, it gives her closure so she can move on and recover from the incident.
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Featured image by MS News.
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