A 28-year-old man was sentenced to 16 months of jail term on Friday, September 14 after the court found him guilty of having sex with a 14-year-old girl, including other female minors.
In 2014, the man met the victim at a chalet but both of them did not speak that night. But in November, when their mutual friends bumped into each other, the accused, who was then 24-year-old invited them to his house.
The court documents stated that at the time of that get-together the parents of the unnamed accused were overseas. The group of friends, including the victim, who was then 10 years younger, had alcohol at that party. After some time, when the man directed the victim towards a toilet inside his parent's bedroom, the accused went into the room and locked the door.
When the victim came out of the toilet the man asked her to sit down and then he also sat next to her. While taking his next move, first the accused hugged her, then slightly pushed the victim to lie down and proposed to kiss her on cheeks. During the court hearing the Deputy Public Prosecutor Marshall Lim said that after the kiss, the minor was shocked.
The documents also stated that when the man asked the victim to become his girlfriend, the victim said that she is uncertain but still the accused kissed her on the lips and had an unprotected sex with her.
Two years later, when the unnamed victim visited a polyclinic for a urinary tract infection, she informed the doctor that she had an unprotected sexual intercourse. Soon, a report was lodged as the victim was a minor at the time of the incident.
While the Deputy Public Prosecutor Amanda Han was seeking for 18 months of jail sentence, he told the court that this is not the first time when the man had sexual intercourse with a minor, as earlier, in 2009 he had sex with this girlfriend who was 12-years-old at the time of the crime but the accused was sentenced to probation.
Later, he also faced 16 months of jail term after he committed the same offence in 2016 with another 14-year-old female, whom he was seeing for a month and almost irritated her to have the intimate moment.
In addition, Han said that in this case the accused took advantage of the familiarity of his surroundings. She also stated that the convict did not reveal his real name or identifying details to the victim and he chose to be known as "Zayden."
However, as per the Child Guidance Clinic report, the victim, 14, has been suffering with insomnia and has difficulties to trust people.
According to the law of the country sexual relation with a minor regardless of whether the act was consented to or not, is illegal and it is a punishable offence pursuant to Section 376A of the Penal code. Since the legal age in the context of Singapore is 16, for sexual penetration of a minor, the offender will be liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 10 years and/ or fine under the Section 377 of the Penal code.
