A 53-year-old man, who was posing as a Housing and Development Board (HDB) officer, sexually assaulted two young sisters. The accused was given the maximum preventive detention term of 20 years on Monday.
The convict, Hussain Samat had lured two sisters, who were aged between 12 and 16 at the time of the offence, inside his flat in May 2017 and sexually assaulted them at knifepoint. The reports stated that the man also recorded some the acts.
The court documents showed that the convict was suitable overall for preventive detention. Hussain was assessed to be in good physical condition but he suffered from high cholesterol, hypertension and spine degenerative illness.
During the court hearing, the Deputy Public Prosecutor David Khoo told the judge that Hussain was previously diagnosed with antisocial personality disorder and psychosis, with a medical history of schizophrenia. However, the court came to know that currently, he is in a stable condition as Hussain is now on medication.
Even though the defence layer, Melvin Loh, who represented Hussain, asked the Justice Valerie Then to backdate his sentence to May 2017, when the accused was placed in remand, the judge rejected the appeal. She granted the sentence urged by the prosecution while stating that it was an appropriate punishment for Hussain.
The judge said that canning has been imposed on Hussain before he turned 50 but "all of these sentences have had no effect."
She also noted that Hussain had faced charges involving sexual crimes against minors in 2001 but he continued to commit such crimes soon after he was released.
The judge also added that the psychiatric assessments reports showed that the convict was "highly likely to re-offend." It also stated that Hussain had a "high denial of sexual violence tendencies."
However, the family was not present during the hearing but the judge allowed Hussain to talk to his family over the phone after the proceedings were over.
