A 29-year-old Singaporean man has pleaded guilty on Tuesday (Oct. 5) for having underage sex with his girlfriend’s daughter when she was only 14.

She later became pregnant with his child.

According to court documents seen by Mothership, the accused was between 26 and 27 years old at the time of the offences.

He was in a romantic relationship with the victim's mother about a month after they met in 2015.

Sometime in 2016, the couple lived together in the same unit. The victim joined them in late 2016.

The accused, the victim, and her mother cannot be named due to gag orders protecting the victim's identity.

Initially not close to him

Court documents revealed that the accused and the victim did not share a close relationship for about a year and a half after they were first introduced.

This was because the victim had previously been sexually abused by a family member when she was between 10 and 12 years old.

Thus, she generally avoided the accused as she was still affected by the ordeal.

Eventually earned her trust

However, the accused eventually earned the victim's trust by assuming the role of a father figure in her life.

The victim's biological father was in prison at the time, so the accused provided her with the love and affection she had yearned for.

According to court documents, the accused would shower her with affection by spending relatively large sums of money to celebrate her birthday and taking her out to enjoy her favourite activities, such as ice skating.

The accused also assumed responsibility of the upkeep of the home by doing most of the cooking and cleaning.

Additionally, he would care for the victim when she fell ill and guided her when she needed assistance with her homework.

Through these gestures, and with time, the accused and the victim grew closer and developed a relationship akin to father and daughter.

She referred to him as "daddy", court documents stated.

Relationship turned sexual

Sometime between October and December 2018, their relationship developed into a sexual one.

They started having consensual unprotected penetrative sex regularly when the victim's mother, who was the sole breadwinner of the family, was at work.

The accused and the victim continued to have unprotected sex until December 2019.

From January 2020 to June 2020, the victim's pregnancy was causing too much discomfort for them to continue penetrative sex.

They instead engaged in unprotected oral sex during this period, court documents stated.

Admitted to NUH

On May 14, 2020, the victim was admitted to the National University Hospital (NUH) for severe stomach pains.

However, the NUH medical staff subsequently ascertained them to be labour contractions.

The hospital then alerted the police to the case of teenage pregnancy.

The victim gave birth to a baby girl the next day, although she did not indicate any details of her child's father on the birth certificate.

On May 26, 2020, the victim reported to the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority (ICA) to register the birth of her child.

However, ICA referred the matter to the police as she was under 16 years old.

In the course of investigations, the victim identified the accused as the father of her child.

DNA analysis

Blood specimens were taken from the victim and her child respectively for DNA analysis.

A blood specimen was also obtained from the accused on the same day for the same purpose.

The accused was subsequently found to be the baby's biological father, with a probability of 99.9999 per cent upon analysis.

Experienced passive suicidal wishes

According to court documents, the victim was later sent to a child guidance clinic for evaluation.

It was found that she had experienced various negative emotions as a result of the accused's offences, which included moodiness and irritability, as well as difficulty sleeping.

Court documents revealed that the victim was sad she had missed out on her dream of graduating with her friend in 2020.

She also experienced "passive suicidal wishes" because of the repeated sexual abuse she has experienced.

She was also worried that her child might hate her if she finds out about her illegitimate birth.

The accused will return to court on Nov. 29, 2021 for sentencing.

Top image by Elia Pellegrini via Unsplash.