A 59-year-old man was found guilty of sexual offences against his employer's granddaughter, who was seven and eight at the time of the crime. The accused was sentenced to 20-years' of imprisonment on Monday.
The man was convicted of three counts of charges that includes using his finger to penetrate a girl without her consent, committing an obscene act with a minor and penetrating a child with fingers.
On the day of the hearing, the court heard that the accused was hired by the girl's father in 2006 as a delivery driver for a restaurant, which was owned by the girl's paternal grandfather. The man bought sweets and toys for the girl and her sibling. As reported the girl was quite close to him, as earlier she described the man as her best friend. The unnamed girl was very happy whenever she was with the accused.
However, in September 2015, when the girl visited the family restaurant, the man took her to an area, which had no surveillance cameras. While sitting on the man's lap, he started to penetrate the minor, now nine with his fingers. When she expressed the discomfort, the accused manipulated her by saying that she should not tell others about those actions, as it was their secret.
Over the next few months, he again committed the similar offences in the same office area. Even once he promised the victim to buy fast food and when she got inside the delivery van, the accused committed an obscene act, orally, with the girl and cleaned her by using wet tissues and later gave her the promised food.
Later, in June 2016, after a family issue between the girl's father and her grandfather, the victim and her immediate family started to live in a separate house. The grandfather of the victim used to tell the accused to deliver some household items to the girl's house, where they were living after the separation but during those visits also the man committed sexual acts with the victim. Once he was performing an obscene act with the minor when her infant sister was in the same room and was watching television.
In the same year, on December 5 the man again went to the girl's house to deliver a baby cot and he sat on the sofa with the girl. Even though a maid was sitting in the same room and was facing to a different direction, the man showed the victim a pornographic video and started to penetrate her. Suddenly when the maid turned towards the sofa, she noticed the hands of the accused inside the girl's tights and then she told the man to stop what he was doing.
After the departure of the accused, when the maid asked the victim about what happened to her, the victim described the horrible experience that she was facing for a while. Then the maid told the incident to the grandfather of that girl and then the family lodged a police report against the man.
Later, the girl said that she did not disclose anything because she was scared that the accused would not want her anymore, as usually, he was very nice to her.
During the court hearing the David Khoo, Deputy Public Prosecutor sought for 28-years of imprisonment for the man. He added that the accused had tried to morally corrupt the girl by showing her pornographic footages and isolate her from her parents to find several opportunities to commit such criminal activity.
On the other hand, Wee Hong Shern, who was representing the accused said that his client was lonely and lacked a conjugal relationship with his former wife. But, the judge dismissed all of his arguments stating that it was not a mitigation factor.
The accused will start to serve his 20-year prison sentence from his date in remand, December 2016.
