A 42-year-old Chinese woman was raped at knifepoint in Serangoon Gardens, Singapore after she managed to prevent a 25-year-old man's attempt to rob her. On Tuesday, the Singaporean man, who has been identified as Kelvin Singh, pleaded guilty to a charge of rape and two charges of sexual assault by penetration that took place past midnight on Jan 13 last year.
The convict could face between eight and 20 years of jail and at least 12 strokes of the cane for each charge of rape and sexual assault. The High Court said that four other charges, including attempted robbery, abduction, aggravated outrage of modesty and criminal intimidation, will be taken into consideration when he is sentenced at a later date.
On the day of the incident, Singh, who had absconded from the Reformative Training Centre at the time, was cycling in the vicinity of Serangoon Gardens, looking for victims to rob when he spotted the woman, who was going back home from work.
Kelvin followed her down a back alley of Worthing Road beside Kensington Park Condominium with an intension to rob her. When he found an opportunity, he left his bicycle and ran towards her with a Swiss army knife and demanded money. But, the courageous woman flung her handbag over a fence into a compound of a house.
When Singh pointed his knife at her, the woman pointed at the house and told him that she had "no money" in English. Immediately Singh realised that the woman had thrown her bag over the fence and he decided to have sex with her in order to take revenge.
He signalled the woman to follow him to the deserted end of the alley and there he forced the woman to perform oral sex on him. The victim, who was scared of getting killed, obeyed his instructions. Then, Singh raped her in the alley before he let her go.
After the sexual assault, Singh used his right thumb to make a slitting gesture across his own throat, and warned her not to call the police, before cycling off. After sometime, the victim contacted her boyfriend and informed everything.
The prosecutors said that the victim did not tell her boyfriend or the police that she had been raped as she was extremely embarrassed. The woman only reported that a dark-skinned man had tried to rob her.
After three days, a member of the public informed the police after spotting Singh cycling around the nearby Tavistock Avenue Park. Although, he tried to escape but the police arrested Singh after a brief chase. Reports said that the Swiss army knife that he had used to threaten the woman was found in his possession.
In February 2016, psychiatric report said that Singh has "a history of conduct disorder, borderline intelligence ... (and) prominent antisocial and narcissistic personality traits". But, it added that he does not suffer from a mental illness and was not of unsound mind at the time of the offences.
The psychiatrists said that Singh is "at considerable risk of committing serious sexual or (violent) offences in future" because he "did not appear to be genuinely remorseful."
According to the report, Singh was not at all remorseful for his actions and even smiling as the charges were read to him. The police believe that he was at considerable risk of committing similar serious sexual or violent offences in future.
