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SINGAPORE – He was supposed to send his teenage niece to school, but instead took her to a multi-story parking lot where he asked her to sit on his lap and then kissed her neck.
The girl’s mother had previously told the man to stop having physical contact with the girl as she had just reached puberty.
In state court on Thursday (October 22), the 48-year-old was jailed 20 weeks after pleading guilty to committing an indecent act with the 13-year-old victim in August last year.
Both the victim and the perpetrator cannot be named to protect the identity of the former.
The victim viewed the perpetrator as a father figure
The man, who worked as a pest buster and owned a pickup truck, was the husband of the victim’s maternal aunt and a father figure to the victim.
He often expressed his affection for his niece by hugging her, making her sit on his lap, and kissing her cheeks.
These actions ended around 2015 when the victim’s mother told the man that he should refrain from unnecessary physical contact with the girl, as she had reached puberty. The man agreed that it would be inappropriate and stopped physical contact with the girl.
On August 2 last year, the victim was on his way to school by bus when he met his uncle on an empty terrace. The man offered to drive her to school in his truck, but the girl refused. He finally relented after a bit of persuasion.
However, while in the van, the man passed the girl’s school. The girl didn’t think much of it at the time, thinking that her uncle couldn’t stop the truck at the entrance to the school.
The man then parked the truck in a multi-story parking lot and the girl got out to thank her uncle for taking her to school. The man told her that he missed her and asked for a hug, to which the girl agreed.
He then motioned for the girl to get into the back of the truck with him and sit on his lap. The man then kissed her neck several times, taking pictures of themselves several times.
Even though the girl struggled to free herself, the man tightened her hug. He only let her go when the girl said she was late for school.
“The victim was shocked and disappointed in the accused. She texted her mother to inform her that the defendant had kissed her. The victim also reported the matter to her teacher upon arrival at the school, ”said Assistant District Attorney Colin Ng.
During a psychiatric evaluation five weeks after the incident, the girl said she felt upset and frustrated because she treated her uncle like a father. She also had repeated flashbacks of the incident and dreamed about it.
For his crime, which is governed by the Children and Adolescents Act, the man could have been imprisoned for up to five years, fined up to $ 10,000 or both.
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