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Tia Sin Kwang, a 56-year-old Singaporean man, was sentenced to three-and-a-half years' jail for molesting a 38-year-old woman he had been stalking for months.

A second charge of unlawful stalking was considered in his sentencing, CNA reported.

According to court documents seen by Mothership, Tia and the vicim worked in the same building and lived in the same neighbourhood.

The victim would see Tia around at the office canteen and in the neighbourhood.

While they occasionally made small talk, court documents stated that they were not friends.

The victim cannot be named due to a gag order protecting her identity.

Managed to get her number and find out where she lived

Sometime in early 2021, Tia saw the victim with her daughter in the neighbourhood.

He then asked the victim if she wanted tracing books for her daughter.

The victim agreed and, on Tia's request, the pair exchanged phone numbers.

According to court documents, Tia had told the victim to save his contact on her phone as "Koon".

Thereafter, on a few occasions, Tia and the victim met up at level one of her block so that he could pass the tracing books to her.

On one occasion, Tia had followed the victim in the lift up to the floor she lived in, claiming he wanted to escort her upstairs.

Through this, he found out the victim's floor number and unit. The victim had never told him her address, court documents stated.

From as early as May. 12, 2021, Tia had repeatedly sent the victim text messages asking whether she loved him, despite her rejections.

He also stood outside her unit on a few occasions.

Additionally, he would follow the victim while she was at the void deck with her daughter.

Molested the victim in a lift

On Aug. 6, 2021, Tia's stalking escalated.

According to court documents, the victim left her house to go to work at around 8am that day.

Tia was already loitering at the lift lobby on the floor she lived in. The victim spotted him.

At 8:13am, she entered the lift, and Tia followed swiftly behind her.

In the lift, Tia placed his right hand on the victim’s right shoulder.

He then stood very closely behind her as she was pressing the lift buttons.

The victim pushed Tia's arm away and tried to move away from him. However, Tia placed his right hand on the victim’s back and intentionally cornered her with his body.

The victim tried to avoid him by turning to face the corner wall of the lift, but Tia used his hands to grab both the victim’s arms, trapping her.

Tia then used his hands to grab the victim's private parts over her clothing.

The victim tried to crouch her body into the corner of the lift to prevent Tia from touching her, but to no avail.

The lift stopped at one of the floors, and Tia realised that the lift door was about to open.

Thus, he stopped his advances towards the victim and quickly moved to stand near the lift buttons.

Other individuals then entered the lift.

When the lift reached level one, the victim hurriedly left the lift and walked towards the bus stop in the vicinity.

Tia followed her to the bus stop. He also got onto the bus she boarded.

The victim intentionally sat at the back of the bus to avoid Tia, who was following behind her.

But Tia followed the victim to the back of the bus and sat beside her.

The victim quickly stood up and moved to another seat.

Later, the victim alighted from the bus at Bukit Merah bus interchange.

She waited there for another bus, which she needed to take to get to her workplace.

Tia followed the victim to the waiting area and stood beside her. Whilst standing beside her, he showed her a photograph he had of her in his phone.

This was the second time he had shown the same photograph to the victim. He had gotten the photo from her Facebook account. The victim had since set her Facebook account to private.

When she saw the photograph again, the victim felt disgusted.

She moved away from Tia but each time she did so, he followed her and stood beside her.

The victim later boarded the bus. Tia did not follow her.

Was a married man, claimed he "fell in love" with the victim

According to Yahoo, Tia's lawyer argued that Tia was a faithful husband to his wife. They have been married for 30 years.

He started "acting out of character" when he met the victim, claiming he "fell in love" with her and had lost his sense of judgment, as reported by Yahoo and CNA.

Tia’s lawyer also stated that Tia has regretted his actions and had immediately pleaded guilty.

Meanwhile, the prosecution argued that Tia had been stalking the victim from May to August, despite her rejecting him and clearly letting him know she was not interested in him.

She had also told Tia to stop contacting her, but he continued to stalk her.

Moreover, on the day the molest occurred, the prosecution stated that Tia's actions were premeditated as he was already waiting for the victim at her lift lobby.

According to Today, the district judge agreed to a sentence that is greater than the mandatory minimum, due to how serious the crime was.

For wrongful restraint to molest a victim, an offender can be jailed for at least two years.

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Top image by Shawn Ang via Unsplash (for illustration purposes only).