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SINGAPORE: A boy molested his only sister, three years his junior, from when she was eight years old, progressing to raping her when she was 13.<\/p>\n
The offender, now 19, pleaded guilty on Monday (Apr 6) to two counts of molestation and one count of rape. Another three similar charges will be considered in sentencing.<\/p>\n
The offender cannot be named due to gag orders protecting his sister’s identity.<\/p>\n
The court heard that the offender was the second-oldest brother in the family, while the victim was the only girl.<\/p>\n
The family lived together and the victim slept in her own room. From around August 2019 to August 2021, the family had a live-in helper.<\/p>\n
Around 2018, the boy committed his first act of sexual assault against his sister, who was eight to nine years old.<\/p>\n
The boy had been watching pornography and wanted to replicate the sex acts he had seen.<\/p>\n
When he was alone with his sister in her room, with their parents not at home, the boy molested the girl for about five to 10 minutes. He stopped only when their helper called out for them.<\/p>\n
The incident caused the girl to fear her brother, who went on to sexually assault her several times that year. He asked her to perform a sex act on him on one occasion, but she refused.<\/p>\n
In another instance, the boy showed his sister a pornographic video in her room.<\/p>\n
On that day, their mother returned home earlier than usual and saw them watching the video. She scolded her son and from then on, he was not allowed to enter his sister’s room.<\/p>\n
The boy paused his sexual attacks on his sister until 2020.<\/p>\n
One night, sometime between 2020 and 2021, when the girl was between 10 and 12, the boy went to his sister’s room while his parents were not at home.<\/p>\n
He molested his sister again while she was sleeping. He continued to molest her between 2020 and 2021 at night, either when his parents were not home or when they were asleep.<\/p>\n
At some point between 2020 and 2022, the boy decided to “intensify the nature of his sexual assault”, the prosecutor said.<\/p>\n
The boy sexually assaulted his sister sometime at night between 2020 and 2022, repeating this several times during that period.<\/p>\n
The helper caught the now-teenage boy sexually assaulting his sister on some occasions. Although she threatened to tell his parents, she ultimately did not.<\/p>\n
As her employment contract was coming to an end as August 2021 drew close, the helper kept a close watch on the girl and often accompanied the girl in her room.<\/p>\n
The offender paused his sexual assaults because he could not enter his sister’s room this way.<\/p>\n
But when the helper left after her contract ended in August 2021, it “emboldened” the offender to resume his sexual assault on his sister, the prosecutor said.<\/p>\n
Between January and October in 2022, the teenager went into his sister’s room and attempted to rape her.<\/p>\n
He did not succeed, but tried again soon after, when his sister was 13 and he was 16.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Because of the school holidays, they spent most of their time alone at home.\u00a0<\/p>\n
This time, the boy raped his sister as she slept. When she woke up and saw him, she kicked him and he ran out of her room.<\/p>\n
The victim initially tried to resist her brother by showing her anger towards him. She would throw books at him, push him and hit him, but he persisted with his attacks.<\/p>\n
The last incident took place at around 6am on Jan 30, 2023 when the victim was 13.<\/p>\n
The offender entered his sister’s room while she slept and molested her. When she woke up, he leapt from the bed and fled the room.<\/p>\n
Their father, who had woken up to use the toilet, sensed that something was amiss. He called his son and asked if he had been in his sister’s room. But the boy denied it – and denied it again when his mother asked him the same question.<\/p>\n
However, the girl confided in her mother that her brother had touched her.<\/p>\n
When the boy eventually admitted his act, the father lodged a police report.<\/p>\n
Deputy Public Prosecutors Hidayat Amir and Yeo Kee Hwan sought 11 years’ jail and 15 strokes of the cane.<\/p>\n
They said the sexual abuse that first occurred against the victim marked a turning point when the victim’s close bond with her brother was overtaken by fear.<\/p>\n
“For the next five years, the fear did not dissipate, just as the accused’s sexual abuse did not relent,” said the prosecutors. “On the contrary, the abuse only grew in depravity.”<\/p>\n
They said that by “sexually tormenting the victim for five years”, the offender not only abdicated his responsibility as the victim’s protector but “defiled” it.<\/p>\n
The prosecutors added that the offender was “not only a persistent but a cunning sexual predator”, who waited until the helper left before raping his sister.<\/p>\n
He will return to court for sentencing in May.<\/p>\n
For rape, he could be jailed for between eight and 20 years and given at least 12 strokes of the cane.<\/p>\n
For molestation of a minor aged below 14, he could be jailed for up to five years, fined, caned, or given any combination of these penalties.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n