[ad_1]
SINGAPORE – A man convicted of sexually abusing a 12-year-old girl had his sentence reduced on appeal.
The 35-year-old man now faces two years in prison and three strokes of the baton, instead of the four years and six months in prison and six strokes of the baton that a district judge previously imposed.
The man and the girl, who referred to him as his stepfather, cannot be named to protect their identity. Reducing the charge of aggravated outrage from modesty to indignation to modesty, Chief Justice Sundaresh Menon, who heard the appeal, noted that the man slapped the victim ten minutes after abusing her, meaning he couldn’t have been. made to commit the crime.
In his judgment delivered on Wednesday (November 4), the Chief Justice wrote: “At the trial, the Prosecutor’s Office identified the relevant act of harm as the appellant’s act of slapping the victim twice, but it is not disputed that this act occurred ten minutes after the offense of indecent assault was committed.
“Therefore, it cannot be said that this act was carried out to commit or facilitate the commission of that crime.”
The man is the boyfriend of the girl’s mother and the father of the victim’s younger half-brother. The family lived together in a one-room apartment.
The girl previously testified that in the early hours of August 28, 2019, the man woke her up and felt his hand under her bra on her left breast for about a minute while applying a significant amount of force.
He then tugged at her hair and brought her face close to his groin three or four times, but she didn’t see if his genitals were exposed as he had moved away. Ten minutes later, he slapped her twice.
During those ten minutes, she moved to her brother’s bed where the man kept trying to touch her but stopped when her brother woke up.
Later that day, he told his school counselor about the incident.
The Chief Justice said that although the man, who represented himself, did not follow the proper procedure to lodge an appeal against the conviction, it was allowed in the interest of justice.
The man maintained that he was innocent.
The prosecution had proposed replacing the aggravating element of slapping the victim for wrongful restraint by pulling her hair and forcing her head into the man’s groin.
However, this was not allowed as the Chief Justice said it would have “completely changed the look of the case” and there was a reasonable possibility that the trial would have proceeded differently if the man had been tried on this modified charge. proposed.
There was also concern about possible harm to the man.
Later, the prosecution sought to amend the accusation for a modesty offense of a person under 14 years of age, which was allowed as this would not cause any harm as it is a minor version of the original accusation.
The man was later convicted of this amended charge.
[ad_2]
