Convicted rapist claims teen stepdaughter lied that he sexually assaulted her as he confiscated her phone
Selina Lum
The Straits Times
March 28, 2025
A 30-year-old man who raped and sexually assaulted his teenage stepdaughter over seven months has been sentenced to 25 years' jail and 24 strokes of the cane.
He is appealing against his conviction and sentence, which the High Court delivered on March 28.
The man had claimed trial to his charges, and denied committing any sexual acts on the girl, who was 13 to 14 years old at the time of the offences in 2021.
He claimed that the girl had lied about being sexually assaulted by him because she was upset with him for confiscating her mobile phone and the TV remote and preventing her from watching K-pop shows.
After the man's arrest in September 2021, he admitted to various sexual acts with the girl in his video-recorded statements to the police.
But in court, he claimed that these statements had not been given voluntarily, and thus cannot be used as evidence against him.
In sentencing him on March 28, Justice Mavis Chionh said she considered the man's brazen abuse of trust and his lack of remorse in making false allegations against the police.
The man asserted that he had given a false confession because he believed that the girl was being held in custody by the police.
He said a police officer had told him to think about when his child would be able to go home if he kept "giving excuses or evading".
He claimed that he falsely confessed because he was worried about her and believed that the police would release her after he admitted to having committed the acts.
The man, who was defended by Mr K. Jayakumar Naidu, had faced a total of eight charges.
In February, Justice Chionh found the man guilty of seven charges - five counts of rape and two counts of sexual assault by penetration.
The judge acquitted him of the remaining charge of rape due to the absence of evidence corroborating the girl's testimony.
The man had moved in to live with the girl and her mother in a one-room flat in end-2017 or 2018.
He married the woman in January 2020.
The girl testified that the man, whom she saw as a father figure, sexually assaulted her on at least six occasions between March and September 2021.
Her mother, who was 42 years old when his trial began in September 2024, worked as a senior healthcare assistant, and was not at home when the incidents took place.
The first time the man sexually assaulted the girl was during the March school holidays in 2021.
After her mother left for work, the man asked her for a hug.
While she was hugging him, he put his hand into her shorts and sexually violated her.
The second incident took place between April and May 2021.
He again asked the girl for a hug after her mother had left for work.
As they lay on his bed to watch a live stream on his phone, he touched her sexually and then raped her.
The girl also testified about an incident between June and July, two incidents in August, and a sixth incident during the September school holidays that year.
After the last incident in September 2021, she heard a rumour that somebody from her class had had sex. This made her cry because she had flashbacks of what her stepfather had done.
On Sept 24, 2021, she told her schoolmates, teacher and school counsellor about the sexual assault, before she was taken by Child Protective Service officers to KK Women's and Children's Hospital.
The man was arrested that day.
In video-recorded interviews with the police, he described what he had done in various incidents.
In convicting him on Feb 26, Justice Chionh rejected the man's claim that these were false admissions, saying that his testimony was "riddled with inconsistencies and wholly unbelievable".
She also noted that the man was able to come up with vivid details, which showed clearly that he was not parroting something that the officer had purportedly told him but, rather, recounting acts that he knew first-hand.
Justice Chionh found that his admissions were given voluntarily and amounted to corroboration of the girl's evidence.
There was, however, one exception: The girl had testified about two incidents of rape in August, but the man admitted to only one.
The judge said it was not safe to conclude that the charge relating to the other incident has been proved beyond reasonable doubt.
However, Justice Chionh said the man's suggestion that the girl had a motive to frame him was "absurd and unbelievable".
