A Singapore man, who sexually abused his step-daughter over six years, was sentenced to 24 years of imprisonment including 24 stokes of the cane on Thursday.
As per the court documents, the 45-year-old convict committed the first offence when the girl was 12-year-old.
The High Court came to know that the girl first told her mother about the sexual abuse in 2017 after the man broke his promise to stop committing the offence once she turned 18. Initially, no police report was made, but the victim moved in with her biological father and cut off all kind of communication with her step-father.
The judge heard that after a few months, the girl, who is now 20-year-old moved back to the old place and barely a day after she returned, her step-father started to abuse her again. This time when she told her mother about the sexual abuse, they filled a police complaint.
During the hearing on Thursday, the unnamed accused pleaded guilty to three charges of aggravated sexual assault by penetration and another 18 charges of various sexual offences were taken into consideration.
The parents of the victim were divorced in 2000 and almost seven years later, her mother married the convict. The step-father and the girl's mother had two daughters. In 2010, the family moved to Johor Baru but the victim used to travel daily to Singapore to attend her school.
After the arrest, the convict admitted that he started preying on his step-daughter at the Johor house in 2010.
The court also came to know that the accused, who worked as a driver, assaulted the victim in Singapore also at a Woodlands flat, where the girl used to go after the school and wait for the man to take her home. It should be noted that the flat was owned by the mother of the victim.
On one occasion in 2011, the man did not send the girl to the school and took her to the empty flat, where he asked forced the victim to perform oral sex on him and later he took her to home.
In 2012, when the family moved back to Singapore, the man made her perform oral sex on him again, while his wife and two children were asleep. He committed this offence inside the toilet of their flat.
After the arrest, the convict who was diagnosed as a paedophile told a psychiatrist that he engaged in those sexual acts as he had an "increased sexual need".
