SINGAPORE – A 71-year-old man who, over three decades, sexually abused 11 girls, including his daughter, his son’s two daughters and his four nieces, was sentenced to 21 years’ jail on Sept 17.
The other four victims were students from an enrichment centre he and his wife ran from 1997 to 2021.
The 11 victims were assaulted between 1990 and 2023 – some were as young as five or six.
During this period, he was sent to prison twice, in August 1999 and March 2020, for molestation and sexual exploitation offences committed against other victims.
But the offences involving the 11 victims came to light only in August 2023 after his granddaughters told their mother he had sexually assaulted them.
The man, who uses a wheelchair, now has a rare blood cancer known as myelofibrosis.
He cannot be caned as he is over 50, and he cannot be named due to a gag order to prevent the victims from being identified.
In sentencing the man, High Court judge Mavis Chionh said: “This was a tragic case of persistent sexual offending by a diagnosed paedophile against his own family members and students who trusted him.
“Despite having been caught, prosecuted and punished on two separate occasions prior to these proceedings before me, the accused in this case reoffended shortly after being released from his latest stint in prison.”
Chionh declined the defence’s request that she exercise judicial mercy or consider the man’s ill health as a significant mitigating factor.
“This is not a case where the humanitarian considerations supporting the exercise of judicial mercy should prevail over the interests of society,” said the judge, adding that retribution, protection of the public and deterrence weighed heavily in this case.
She noted the man’s offences were particularly heinous.
“The full extent of the accused’s offending is appalling,” she added.
Read Full Article At Source
