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He went clubbing with a woman he had met on Tinder, but ended up sexually abusing her friend, who accompanied her on her date.
When he suddenly kissed the victim on the lips, she was silent because she did not want to upset her friend, who thought she was interested in him.
But after taking his date home, former national soccer player Mohammad Imran Sahib abused the victim in his car, a district court heard.
Yesterday, the 38-year-old man was found guilty of two counts of sexual abuse and one count of use of criminal force after a trial.
Imran, who is married with three children, denied committing the crimes.
But District Judge Kan Shuk Weng found the victim’s account to be unusually compelling and said her behavior in court showed that she was still traumatized by the incident.
The woman, who cannot be named, was 21 at the time.
She broke down several times while testifying. She also had nightmares of people raping her and had once dreamed of committing suicide.
She told the court that she felt terrified and unprotected after Imran abused her.
She managed to flee when she stopped her car near a bus stop to relieve herself.
She left in such a hurry that she left her high heels behind and walked barefoot for 1.5 km to her friend’s house.
The judge said the victim’s evidence was corroborated by witnesses and searches from the parking garage, while Imran’s defense was riddled with inconsistencies and illogical at times.
Imran, who was represented by attorney Revi Shanker, alleged that the woman acted strangely and yelled at strangers while taking methamphetamine.
She claimed that she had felt slighted for his lack of interest in her, and that she and her friend had fabricated WhatsApp messages to incriminate him.
He also alleged that the victim’s then-boyfriend, who is the friend’s cousin, made the victim file a police report to get revenge on Imran.
But Judge Kan said the allegations were clearly an afterthought, as they were not raised in the statements he gave to the police or presented to the victim or witnesses during the trial.
Imran won four games with the Lions in 2004 and played for S. League clubs Tampines Rovers, Home United, Woodlands Wellington and Sembawang Rangers.
At the time of the incident, Imran was Grab’s driver. He used a pseudonym on the Tinder app.
On March 4, 2018, Imran went dancing in three clubs with his date and the victim. They left Beacon on Raffles Boulevard after it closed at 6 a.m. In the parking lot, his date threw up as he walked ahead of Imran and the victim.
It was then that he kissed the victim, Assistant District Attorney Chee Ee Ling said.
She pushed it away and didn’t tell her friend.
He sat in the back seat while Imran drove the friend home to Ang Mo Kio. She moved into the front passenger seat after her friend got out.
As they exited the parking lot, Imran touched the victim’s right thigh, lifted her skirt, and gripped her inner thigh tightly.
She pushed him away, but Imran grabbed her right hand and sucked on her fingers.
Then the woman sent distress messages on WhatsApp to her friend, who called her. But the victim did not respond because he did not want Imran to listen.
After she escaped from Imran and returned to her friend’s block, her friend did not respond to her text messages. He waited on the empty deck and took a taxi home around 8am.
Her sister later found her crying in the living room. On March 20, he made a police report with the support of his sister.
Judge Kan noted that the victim, who is now 23 years old and married with a child, was initially reluctant to make a police report because she feared Imran would hurt her or destroy her reputation.
The judge also considered that the friend was a “witness to the truth”, since she was no longer close to the victim when the case went to trial and had no reason to go through the charade of lying.
Imran, who is out on $ 5,000 bail, will be sentenced on November 13.
For each count of sexual abuse, you can be jailed for up to two years, fined, and / or punished.
For using criminal force, you can be jailed for up to three months and fined up to $ 1,500.
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