24 years' jail, caning for man who raped 14-year-old biological daughter in bedroom she shared with younger sister

SINGAPORE — While his wife was severely ill, a man was raping his biological teenage daughter.

The 44-year-old Singaporean was on Monday (Aug 8) sentenced to 24 years’ jail with 24 strokes of the cane for his sexual offences.
The man, who cannot named to protect the identity of the victim, pleaded guilty in the High Court to three counts of rape. Eight other charges of rape, sexual assault by penetration and outrage of modesty were taken into consideration during sentencing.
The incidents happened in the family home on various occasions in 2019, when the victim was 14 years old.
Names of the victim and other family members were not disclosed under the court order.

WHAT HAPPENED

Court documents showed that the man has four children with his wife: Three daughters, including the victim, who are aged 13 to 20 and a 10-year-old son.

One day in October 2019, the man entered his daughter’s bedroom, which she shared with her younger sister, sometime between midnight and sunrise while everyone was asleep.

He molested and sexually assaulted the victim, who was awaken by this but pretended to be asleep. The man then went on to rape her before leaving the bedroom.

He did this again in November 2019, also in the wee hours of the night when everyone else was asleep. 

The next month, on Dec 2, when he was at it once more between 6am and 7am, his wife stepped into the room and caught him in the act.

The woman, who was the girl’s biological mother, then hit the man, asking him how he could do such a thing. The victim, along with her younger sister who was in the room, started crying while the man remained silent.

He then apologised to the wife and left the room.

The prosecution said that the victim did not resist the father on all occasions and did not report him because she was afraid.

“The accused was of a larger build than her and she perceived that he would be stronger than her if she resisted him,” the prosecutors said.
She also thought that the family was financially dependent on him and did not want to upset her mother, who had been undergoing treatment for lymphoma (cancer of the blood cells) since November 2019.

After his deeds were exposed, the wife moved the two daughters to sleep with the other two children and the husband stopped his sexual abuse.

In September 2020, while the man’s wife was hospitalised, he entered the victim’s bedroom one night and sat on her mattress, but left after being startled by one of his children sneezing.

The victim, who was aware of what was going on, sent her mother a phone text message the next day about what happened.

The mother confronted the man after she was discharged from the hospital, but he just kept quiet and did not respond.

Later, she felt that she had to apply for a personal protection order for her children against their father in view of what he had done before that and the incident in September.

It was then that they made a police report and the victim told the police officer that she had been raped in 2019.

In seeking the punishment handed by the court, Deputy Public Prosecutors Dwayne Lum, Shen Wanqin and Benjamin Samynathan said that the man had breached the trust of his own daughter by repeatedly raping her in their family home, “his daughter’s only place of refuge and security”.

The prosecutors also highlighted the vulnerability of the victim who was 14 at that time, and that the man had committed his crime without using a condom, exposing the daughter to the risk of unwanted pregnancy and sexually transmitted disease.

For each count of rape and sexual assault by penetration, the man could have been jailed up to 20 years and been fined or caned.

Each count of outrage of modesty carries a punishment of up to two years’ jail, fine, caning or a combination of any of these punishments.