Last Friday (22 Nov), a 51-year-old man was sentenced to 14 years and two months in jail for six counts of sexually exploiting a young person and two counts of sexually penetrating a minor.
The man had been a Malay language teacher, who dated his Primary 6 student in 2006.
The victim allegedly offered to become his second wife, which the man rejected because he was married at the time.
In 2009, the man sexually penetrated the victim shortly before she turned 16 years old, the legal age of consent in Singapore.
According to The Straits Times (ST), the two started conversing on MSN Messenger in 2006.
One day, in the school’s computer lab, the man slid the young girl a note with the words “Aku cinta padamu” written on it, meaning “I love you”.
The two started dating after that incident.
In 2007, the man kissed the victim on the lips when the two were in a car.
Prosecutors said the victim remembered the incident vividly because it was the first time she had been kissed, and she “felt like gagging”.
Source: DAPA Images on Canva, for illustration purposes only.
From there on, the severity of the man’s sexual exploitation started escalating.
A year later in 2008, he began touching the victim over her clothes and performing sexual acts in front of her.
In the same year, she also started visiting his flat where she had been instructed to wear a sweater over her uniform.
During one incident of him performing a sexual act on her, the man’s young daughters had banged on his door looking for him.
In 2010, when the girl was 15 years old, the man sexually penetrated her. The legal age of consent is 16 years old in Singapore.
The series of crimes only came to light in 2017, when the victim’s sister found a recording of her confessing to losing her virginity.
The sister and their father lodged a police report soon after.
According to the prosecutors, the victim had no intention of lodging a police report at all.
She was afraid that it would cost the man his job, and she was ashamed of sharing about this relationship with her friends due to the age difference.
She was also terrified of leaving him to report his inappropriate behaviour.
Source: rattanakun on Canva, for illustration purposes only.
MOE has suspended the former teacher from duty since 2017 and is no longer teaching in any schools, reported ST.
The 51-year-old has denied all eight charges, and he intends to appeal against his conviction and sentence.
He said that the sexual relationship between the two only started after the victim turned 16 years old.
The man also claimed that the victim had a motive of false accusation because he had refused to marry her when she asked to become his second wife.
His bail has been set at S$80,000.
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Featured image by MS News.
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