A 31 year-old man told his girlfriend that he wanted to perform "spiritual cleansing" on her teen daughter, but ended up fondling her breasts and touching her genitals instead.
In October last year, the man moved into the Bukit Merah flat of his then-girlfriend and her daughter. On the night he moved in, he told the mother that he wanted to perform "spiritual cleansing" for her daughter.
He said this would involve massaging the victim's body. The mother agreed because the man had not said anything about touching the victim in a sexual manner.
The three of them went to sleep together that night in the living room of the one-room HDB unit, with the victim lying in the middle.
At about 3am, the teenager was awakened by the accused, who had slipped his hand underneath her clothes and was touching her stomach. Fearful of what might happen if she screamed, she kept quiet and pretended to sleep.
Emboldened by her lack of resistance, the man moved his hand and fondled her left breast for 3 minutes before getting up to talk to her mother. After that, he returned to the room, laid down next to the victim who continued to feign sleep.
Thinking that she did not notice, he put his hands into the victim's shorts and touched her genitals. Upon feeling some pain, she got up and walked away to sit on the sofa. She remained awake and traumatized, staring at her handphone until dawn when she left for school.
Later that day, she told her aunt about the molestation and filed a police report, in which she referred to the accused as her stepfather.
The court charged the man with 2 charges of criminal use of force to outrage the girl's modesty. The court also heard that the man had been convicted for an unrelated case of underage sex.
Prosecutors argued that the man had abused the girl's trust as her surrogate father figure, and that he had stopped just short of committing the more serious sexual penetration of a minor.
Tha man faces up to 2 years jail, caning, a fine or any combination of the three for each of the 2 charges.
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