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A 19-year-old man preyed on an inebriated 18-year-old stranger at a birthday party and raped her after insisting on sending her home.
He even bragged to his friend about the act and sent him a photo of the victim.
Delwin Neo Kah Keng, now 22, was sentenced to nine years and 11 months' jail and six strokes of the cane on Thursday (Apr. 6).
He pleaded guilty to a charge of rape and two other charges under the Children & Young Persons Act for pressurising a 12-year-old girl to engage in sexual acts with him in a separate case when he was 16.
Nine other charges were taken into consideration.
Made her drunk after meeting for the first time at a birthday party
On Nov. 20, 2019, Neo organised a birthday party for his friend at a club located in Clarke Quay.
The victim was invited to the party but did not know Neo.
When she arrived at about 11pm, Neo approached her, asked her to drink Jägermeister from the bottle, and poured it into her mouth for a few seconds until she struggled to swallow.
She later had more drinks and became intoxicated until she vomited a few times.
Insisted on sending her home despite friend's objections
The next day past midnight, Neo insisted on sending the victim home despite her friend's objections.
A promoter at the club offered to send her back together, but he rebuffed the offer and hauled her into a taxi by himself.
Neo found her address, and they arrived at her house at around 3:27am.
There was no one else around as the victim lived alone.
Victim thought he would leave after sending her home
The inebriated victim thought Neo would leave after he had sent her home.
She told him to lock the gate and throw the keys through the gate onto the sofa when he left.
She then went into her bedroom, stripped down to her underwear and fell asleep on her bed.
Throughout the night, she drifted in and out of consciousness.
However, Neo did not leave like he was told to and asked if they could have sex.
The victim rejected him and fell asleep.
"I might be a devil soon"
Neo then texted two friends and told one of them, "I might be a devil soon," before he proceeded to rape the victim who was still sleeping.
The victim woke up and cried for him to stop repeatedly but Neo ignored her pleas.
She managed to make him get off her when she flailed her hands around.
When she chased him out of the flat, Neo repeatedly asked if she was okay and told her not to tell anyone about what had happened.
Victim told boyfriend she was raped
When she was sure that Neo was gone, the victim continued crying alone in her flat.
She tried to call her boyfriend and other friends to tell them about the ordeal, but nobody answered, as it was in the early morning.
When her boyfriend finally picked up her call, she told him she had been raped.
Apologised to victim for making her "uncomfortable"
Later in the afternoon, Neo called up the friend whom he organised the party for and confessed that he had sex with the victim.
Neo tried to persuade the friend to help him ask the victim's other female friends to convince the victim to drop the matter.
At night, Neo suddenly texted the victim to apologise for making her "uncomfortable".
Asked if they could "settle the matter"
The victim emphasised that Neo had raped her, but instead, he asked how they could settle the matter.
He tried to convince the victim that she had asked him to come into her house, but she called him out on his false claims.
Neo replied, "Okay, whatever, I'm sorry."
He then stopped reading her messages and deleted all of them shortly after.
Bragged to a friend about the rape
After texting the victim, Neo messaged a friend that he was "feeling stressed" and might run away from Singapore.
However, later the same night, he messaged another friend who was not at the birthday party to brag that he had sex with a girl the night before, and the girl "cried".
He sent a photo of the victim to the friend and made lewd remarks about her.
The victim didn't dare to leave her flat after the rape as she was worried that Neo might wait for her outside.
Instead of going to the police station, she decided to call the police the next day in the early morning of Nov. 22, 2019, which led to Neo's arrest.
Victim's life torn asunder
The prosecution wrote in their sentencing submissions that the fateful night had torn the victim's life asunder when she was raped in her own house by a stranger she only met once.
In her victim impact statement, she described how everything was "going perfect" for her before the incident.
She was 18, planned to pursue her studies, had a good relationship with her family and was planning to settle down with her boyfriend.
Her aspirations were shattered by Neo and the prosecution summarised what she went through instead:
"In their place were three long years of suicidal thoughts, self-harm tendencies, multiple sessions of therapy, an admission into IMH, loss of focus in her studies and breakdown in her close relationships."
Prosecution: Accused is young but a menace to society
Even though Neo was below 21 years old at the time of the offence, where rehabilitation will be presumptively the dominant consideration, the prosecution emphasised that Neo's offences were sufficiently serious to warrant a deterrent sentence and for retribution.
The prosecution highlighted that while Neo had not been charged with any crimes prior, the slew of offences he had committed before he was arrested is enough for the court to not treat him as a first-time offender.
Neo also took concerted efforts to try and "muzzle" the victim to cover up his crimes, which the prosecution thinks "inexorably point towards an offender who is wanting in remorse and a menace to society with a risk of reoffending".
The prosecution also pointed out that Neo had not only caused great harm to the victim, but because he initially refused to plead guilty, the victim had to prepare for the trial and relive the trauma she went through.
Top photo via Google Maps