SINGAPORE: In what the prosecution described as one of the most horrendous acts of sexual abuse in a preschool, a cook molested toddlers regularly during naptime while other teachers were present.
Teo Guan Huat, a 61-year-old Malaysian and Singapore permanent resident, pleaded guilty on Monday (Oct 27) to three counts of molestation of minors. Another five charges will be considered in sentencing.
The name of the preschool cannot be published due to a gag order protecting the identities of the victims, who were between one and two years old at the time of the offences, which took place over seven months in 2023.
The court heard that Teo worked for the school for about a year before he resigned in late 2023 after being discovered.
Apart from his duties as a cook, he also escorted the children to another teacher for showers and helped take care of them at naptime. He would help lay out mattresses in the nap room and pat the children to sleep.
On Nov 16, 2023, an employee not named in court papers reviewed closed-circuit television footage for an unrelated matter and saw Teo inserting his hand under the diaper of a two-year-old girl.
Members of the school’s management committee confronted him subsequently and asked him to leave. He resigned on Nov 23, 2023.
