56-Year-Old Serial Offender Molests 12-Year-Old Girl At Bendemeer Bus Stop, Gets 20 Months’ Jail

Serial Offender Jailed 20 Months For Molesting 12-Year-Old Schoolgirl At Bendemeer

Walking back home from school is often an eventless journey. Considering Singapore is known for being a safe country, there’s nothing much to worry about most of the time.

Unfortunately, a 12-year-old had a traumatising encounter at a bus stop in Bendemeer, where she was molested by a 56-year-old man.

On Thursday (28 Jul), the perpetrator was sentenced to 20 months’ jail. He also received an additional 10 days for committing the offence while on a remission order for his previous sentence.

Previously, state courts charged the man with two separate cases of outrage of modesty. He received a jail term of 15 months for both occasions.

Serial offender molests girl at Bendemeer bus stop

According to Channel NewsAsia (CNA), Neo Beng Yeow, 56, pleaded guilty to one charge of outraging the victim’s modesty. Another charge was considered at the time of sentencing.

On 23 Jul 2021, Neo came across the victim while she was walking towards a bus stop in Bendemeer to meet up with her friends after school.

He held her arm and asked if she had eaten, to which she said no.

Neo then brushed his hand across her chest. Shocked, the girl retreated and rushed back to her friends.

At this point, Neo decided to approach the group. While he talked to them, the victim’s friend snapped a quick picture of him.

This caused Neo to run back to the bus stop and escape the scene on a bus. The victim and two of her friends started crying, leading some passers-by to stop and help them. One of them filed a police report on the victim’s behalf.

CNA reports that the girl’s vice-principal then arrived at the bus stop. The group informed her of the incident, and she brought them back to the school so they could wait for the police together.

Two previous convictions for molesting minors

According to TODAY, Neo has two previous convictions of assaulting minors in public, just like his latest offence.

Back in 2017, he kissed a nine-year-old girl and touched her head. Two years later, he repeated the offence by hugging and kissing a six-year-old girl on the forehead, Deputy Public Prosecutor Theong Li Han said.

Due to his previous offences and his intention to target victims in primary school, Ms Theong sought a jail term of 20 months.

She argued that Neo had even escalated his mode of assault to a more serious level by “intruding on the private parts” of the victim.

On the other hand, Neo’s lawyer Mr Tan Kah Tian, asked for a jail term of 16 months on the grounds of the current offence not being as severe as it did not involve kissing.

Furthermore, Neo did not attempt to trick the girl in any manner and had been on the way to visit his sister during the incident.

“He acknowledges his condition and is motivated to change for the better,” Mr Tan said.

In response, District Judge Christopher Goh pointed out that Neo’s past offences were the reason for his sentence increase.

As such, he sentenced Neo to a jail term of 20 months for molesting a minor.

The penalty for outraging the modesty of a minor below 14 is up to jail of five years, a fine, caning, or any combination of the three.

Neo cannot be subject to caning as he is currently 56 years old. Only those below 50 can be sentenced to such a penalty instead of jail time.

Justice served for the victim

Offences of this nature are always devastating to hear, especially as the victim was carrying out as simple an activity as walking home from school.

Hopefully, she has been getting the support she needs to help her recover from the incident.

Meanwhile, as Neo is a repeat offender, we hope his acknowledgement in court about being motivated to change still holds when he’s released from prison.