Man who impregnated underage stepdaughter gets jail for raping, sexually assaulting her
File photo of the Supreme Court entrance.
SINGAPORE: When asked by his 13-year-old stepdaughter about sex, a 46-year-old man told her to try it for herself and took her to staircases and empty flats, where he repeatedly raped her over several months.
He stopped raping her when she found a boyfriend, as he felt she was "dirty" for having sex with another man, the court heard.
When his stepdaughter became pregnant with his child, the offender bought pineapple juice and fermented rice and asked her to eat them, hoping to induce a miscarriage.
For three charges of statutory rape, with six other charges of rape and sexual assault taken into consideration, the 52-year-old man was sentenced to 26 years' jail on Thursday (Jun 25).
Of this, a year is in lieu of caning as he is above 50 and cannot be caned.
All parties cannot be named due to gag orders protecting the identity of the victim, who is now 20.
The court heard that the stepfather, a cleaner at the time of the offences in 2013, married the victim's mother in 2007.
He was close to the victim, who was one of several children he and his new wife had from previous relationships.
In 2013, when the victim was in Secondary 1, she became curious about sexual intercourse as her classmates were talking about it, said Deputy Public Prosecutors Joshua Lim and Amanda Han.
One day in early 2013, when the victim was 13, she went home to her stepfather, when no one else was around.
ASKED STEPFATHER ABOUT SEX
She shared with him her curiosity about her classmates' discussions about sex and he said that "she would have to engage in sexual intercourse and would have to experience it for herself to know about it".
He asked her if she wanted to have sex, but she rejected him, saying that she was still young and expressing concerns about becoming pregnant.
Her stepfather assured her that he would use a condom to prevent pregnancy and took her to an empty flat, where he raped her. After this, he asked the girl to perform sex acts on him and asked her to search for pornographic videos online.
He raped her several other times, making her fellate him, and began taking photos and videos of the acts, catching the victim's face.
In July 2013, the victim entered into a relationship with another man, and her stepfather noticed that she was using her phone more frequently.
On his questioning, she said she had a boyfriend and had sex with him on one occasion.
Her stepfather then said he no longer wanted to have sex with her, given that she was also having sex with her boyfriend at that time.
However, after her stepfather raped her between July and August that year, the victim realised she might be pregnant as she felt she had morning sickness.
She told the accused about it. He bought a pregnancy test kit for her, and it revealed that she was pregnant.
Worried that he could be the father, the man instructed the victim to remain silent about their sexual activities and immediately bought pineapple juice and fermented rice for her to eat. He did this for three consecutive days, hoping to induce a miscarriage.
The girl told her mother about the pregnancy and said it was her boyfriend's child.
VICTIM GAVE BIRTH TO STEPFATHER'S CHILD
She gave birth to a boy in April 2014, and the police investigated the case, as the victim was a minor. However, the girl said she had had sex with her boyfriend and did not disclose the sex with her stepfather as she was afraid the latter might show the videos and photos of her to others.
She also wanted to protect her stepfather and was afraid he would get into trouble, and did not want to ruin the relationship between her mother and her stepfather.
In 2016, the girl gave birth to her second child fathered by another boyfriend.
In early 2017, the victim quarrelled with her mother about her sexual activity, and the victim revealed that it was her stepfather who "made her like this".
Stunned, her mother cried and called both her husband and her daughter into the room, where the accused said he was not sure if the baby was his child.
The victim's mother did not pursue the matter, after the victim and accused confirmed that they had not had sex since the victim got pregnant with her stepfather's child.
The victim and the accused promised not to have sex anymore and not to reveal this to other people.
A year later in February 2018, the victim gave birth to a third child that was fathered by another man.
CHILD PROTECTION OFFICER URGED THEM TO FILE POLICE REPORT
Accompanied by her mother, the victim took her baby to the hospital for a medical check-up, where a child protection officer approached them and asked who had fathered the victim's first child.
She answered that she had sex with her stepfather in 2013, and the officer told her to make a police report, but both the victim and her mother were reluctant to.
The officer visited the victim again a few weeks later and said she was worried about the safety of the victim's daughter, asking the victim to report the matter.
The victim made a police report on May 23, 2018, saying that she had sexual intercourse with her stepfather on more than five occasions in 2013.
Analyses of the victim's and her stepfather's blood samples revealed that he was the biological father of her first child.
The stepfather was assessed at the Institute of Mental Health and found to have an IQ in the extremely low to low-average range, but with adequate adaptive function.
He was assessed to be without mental illness or intellectual disability, and was cognisant of the nature of the charges he faced, admitting to taking a liking to his stepdaughter.
The prosecutors asked for at least 26 years' jail, inclusive of a term in lieu of caning, saying that the man completely robbed the victim of her childhood.
"It came to a point where she no longer resisted his advances for sex," said the prosecution. "He impregnated his own stepdaughter, and the victim gave birth to a son when she was only 14 years old."
The girl was eight when the accused came into her life, and had a parent-child relationship for about five years before he began raping her.
"There was a severe abuse of position and breach of trust in this case. He also took advantage of her trust in him, trust which saw her seek out answers for questions she had on the topic of sex," said the prosecution.
OFFENDER IS UNEDUCATED, ILLITERATE: DEFENCE
Defence lawyers Ashwin Ganapathy and Ameera Bajrai of IRB Law asked instead for 22 years' jail, saying that their client's father had died when he was just five.
The offender is uneducated and illiterate, completing school only up to Primary 1, with his lack of education affecting his daily life, said the lawyers.
Mr Ganapathy said the victim has been happily married since November 2019 and is gainfully employed. The child fathered by the accused is being cared for by the accused's wife as the victim's husband purportedly scolded the child, prompting the boy to want his grandmother to care for him instead.
The lawyers argued that the sentence asked for by the prosecution was manifestly excessive, and urged the court not to impose additional jail time in lieu of caning.
They added that their client and the victim "had engaged in consensual sexual acts", while acknowledging that this was neither a defence nor a mitigating factor.
They said four years - the difference between the jail terms the defence and the prosecution sought - would mean "a world of difference" for their client and his family.
For each charge of statutory rape, he could have been jailed for up to 20 years and fined. He escaped caning as he is above 50.
