[ad_1]
SINGAPORE: After her daughter returned to the family home after years of living with her aunt, a man began to sexually abuse her on a weekly basis, punishing her by making her stay out of the house if she did not comply.
When she was 15 years old, he raped her and subjected her to weekly sexual abuse, even when she was having her period.
The girl was afraid of being left out of the house and gave in to her father’s sexual assault. Finally, he told his friends what had happened when they noticed that he was in a bad mood, breaking down in tears as he spoke of his father’s “bullying.”
The 44-year-old man was sentenced Monday (February 22) to 25 years in prison and 24 strokes of the baton. He pleaded guilty to three counts of rape, and 24 other counts were taken into consideration.
The court heard that the man, a food delivery man, had four children with his wife. The couple lived in a four-room apartment with their three children at first, while the victim lived with her aunt until she was nine.
He returned to live with his family in June 2013 when he was in Primary 4 and shared a room with one of his siblings.
A few months after this, her father began abusing her. She did it at least once a week for five years until she was 14. The girl felt scared and uncomfortable, but did not react because she did not know what to do.
She ran away from home in May 2018 because she was feeling stressed and affected by her father’s sexual assault and had gotten in a fight with her mother. He returned home the next day after a missing persons report was filed.
Her father stopped abusing her for several months after this, but continued in December 2018. When the victim told him she was not comfortable with his actions, he punished her by making her stand in front of the wall for an hour.
He told her that “he didn’t feel comfortable being on the floor alone with her” and began to keep her off the floor every day of that month. He let her in alone when her mother came home from work at 7 p.m.
Whenever his mother asked why the victim was outside, the defendant said he was punishing her for not doing housework.
Starting in January 2019, when the victim was 15 years old, the man began raping her. The victim was in pain and was scared, but did not tell anyone because she was afraid that she would be punished and left out of the house.
Between March 2019 and June 2019, the man raped and sexually assaulted his daughter at least once a month.
The victim did not dare to tell anyone about the sexual abuse she suffered and feared that her family would dissolve if she did. On July 31, 2019, the victim deliberately stayed out of school to avoid being home alone with her father. However, her mother scolded her for coming home late.
COMPANIONS OF THE VICTIM’S SCHOOL DISCOVER
On August 1, 2019, three of the girl’s high school classmates noticed that she was in a bad mood. They kept asking him to tell them what was going on. Initially reluctant, the victim began to cry and said her mother had scolded her for being home late, but said she did not want to go home on time because her father “always bullied her.”
The next day, her friends asked her if she meant that she had lost her virginity when she said that her father “stalked” her. Answering “already”, the victim began to cry. The girl’s friends reported the matter to their form teacher and the police were alerted to the case.
A psychiatric report indicated that the victim had flashbacks and repetitive memories of what her father did to her, but that she now thinks less often about the matter.
Her father was assessed as being able to declare and no strong evidence was found to suggest a diagnosis of erectile dysfunction.
The prosecution requested at least 26 years in jail and 24 strokes of the cane, saying that the victim had “suffered in silence for years.”
“When the victim moved in with her biological family at the age of nine, the defendant should have provided her with a loving and safe family environment,” said Assistant Prosecutors Stephanie Koh and Lim Yu Hui.
“Instead, the victim unknowingly entered the lion’s den, and the victim’s sexual torment began just two months after she moved in.”
They added that the accused exploited his access to the victim, “crawling into her bedroom at night to abuse her while she slept, which happened to take advantage of his afternoons alone at home to rape her.”
For each rape count, he could have been jailed for up to 20 years and fined or punished.
