Ex-employee still traumatised over alleged sexual assault by law firm partner 28 years ago
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Warning: This article contains references to sexual assault. Reader discretion is advised.
A woman alleged that she was sexually assaulted by a senior employee while working as a junior secretary in a law firm in Singapore.
Stomper Vani, 54, said she is still suffering from severe post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of the incident 28 years ago.
She shared: "I need to point out not just an injustice but a dastardly, extremely insidious, torturous and traumatic incident that happened in 1997 when I was working in a law firm.
"I was at my desk when a partner in the firm penetrated me through my thin pants, at a time when I had just gone through a personal setback and my mental state was affected."
According to Vani, she was "humiliated and bullied in school" throughout her entire life because she was seen as a "mental social outcast".
She said things got worse when she joined the company, where she was "humiliated" by two partners in the law firm – one of whom was a woman who laughed at Vani "all the time". She was also given "more work than (her) body could handle".
"I only had four O-levels at that time so I was not educated," explained the Stomper. "I was very frightened of people and vulnerable. I just did what they told me to and worked many long nights due to the pain from the personal setback I had experienced earlier in my life."
Then came the tipping point.
Vani said: "A lawyer in the firm took advantage of my weak mental state and penetrated me through my clothes without my consent. I felt him performing the act. I felt a very sharp pain and (something moving inside me). I was extremely humiliated and felt terribly degraded."
Vani told Stomp that she feared retaliation and hence "didn't find the courage" to report the incident. She also struggled to make sense of her ordeal and find the "correct term" for it.
However, researching sexual assault recently prompted her to finally seek help.
The Stomper said she approached various organisations and the authorities, but was told that "nothing can be done" due to a lack of evidence.
"A woman even asked me incredulously if I was experiencing black magic or something," Vani claimed.
"What happened was sexual assault and I wonder how many women could have experienced this. Because of what happened, my concentration has always been at fault, leading to scolding and ridicule from my close ones.
"Now that I am in poor health, I have decided to report this matter before it is too late and I die, to raise awareness of this serious issue to the world, so that no females are subjected to this insidious act."
Vani said the alleged perpetrator has been living well while she "has been degraded, humiliated, denigrated, despised, laughed at and bullied".
"Please get me the justice I have been waiting for so many years so that this insidious dastardly act never happens to any woman," she appealed.
"I have been crying and grinding my teeth in extreme shame, disgust and anger for years ever since. This partner must be punished heavily for ruining my life and completely destroying my very soul."
Vani is sharing her experience in hopes that "this does not happen to anyone else" and to highlight that sexual assault can still occur even when the contact is over clothing.
She added: "All women should come together in solidarity, so no man can ever take advantage of any woman like this."
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