A mother in Singapore first caught her 13-year-old son sexually abusing his five-year-old sister in 2010, did not report the matter to the police after the abuse repeatedly occurred, and even allowed the siblings to sleep in the same bed.

The victim is about 18 years old now.

The mother, 45, pleaded guilty in court to omitting information about criminal offences and two other charges of knowingly permitting the ill-treatment of a child, which were committed from 2010 to 2017, CNA reported.

Two other charges of omitting information will be taken into consideration.

The accused is scheduled to be sentenced on Feb. 22, 2024.

She remains out on S$15,000 bail.

The victim was seated at the public gallery in court on Tuesday.

The woman's son, now 26 years old, was sentenced to 11-and-a-half years' jail and seven strokes of the cane in January 2020.

Mother and daughter are now living together again after the authorities intervened and are currently on social welfare assistance.

A gag order by the court has prevented the naming of all parties involved to protect the victim's identity.

What happened

The mother, her daughter and two sons lived in a two-room public housing flat.

The woman had four children with the same man.

The sexual abuse started in 2010, the year the father stopped living with his family.

He divorced the woman in 2013.

The victim, the youngest child, would split her time living with her father and mother.

The son consumed pornographic animations and cartoons online, it was heard in court, and he would want to perform the behaviour he saw.

He would rub himself against his sister's thighs or privates.

In 2010, when the girl was aged five and her brother was 13, he carried her to the kitchen while he was nude and the girl was naked from the waist down.

Their mother spotted them before anything happened.

The woman asked her son what he was doing, and he did not reply.

He got dressed and helped his sister get dressed as well.

The woman told him that the girl was his younger sister and he should not do such a thing to her.

She would say this the next few times she spotted something amiss.

In another instance, he rubbed himself against his sister while she was napping as he had watched porn.

Semen stains on the girl’s underwear prompted the mother to ask her son if he had molested the girl again and if he had sex with her.

He denied it.

She told her son he should not do such things with his sister.

Made them sleep in same bed

In early June 2017, the woman not only did not intervene, she told her son, who was 20 years old then, to share the same bed as the girl, who was 12.

The woman then caught her son raping the girl.

The son did not answer when asked what he was doing.

She told her son he should not do such things with his sister.

Later in 2017, the son raped his sister again, this time while the whole family was sleeping in the same bedroom.

The man argued with his sister because he did not like it when she used her mobile phone when he was sexually assaulting her.

The woman was awoken by the exchange.

She once again told her son he should not do such things with his sister and asked if the consequences did not scare him.

Missed her period, underwent abortion

The girl missed her period in October and November 2017, which prompted the mother to make her skip school.

The mother bought the pregnancy test kit for her daughter, which showed a positive result.

The woman asked her son if he did anything to his sister, but he did not respond.

The mother asked her daughter if she had sex with anyone else besides her brother, and she denied she did.

A clinic in Singapore confirmed the pregnancy and advised her to send the girl to KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital and file a police report.

Instead, the mother took her daughter to a clinic in Johor Bahru for an abortion, but it could not be carried out as the foetus was over eight weeks old.

The mother was worried the police would arrest her son.

She also decided her daughter should keep the baby.

The school asked the mother about the girl's absence.

The woman said she was taking her daughter out of school as the girl was unwell.

The school insisted a doctor needed to make that recommendation.

The mother came clean and told the school the girl was pregnant with her brother's child.

The school informed the Ministry of Social and Family Development’s Child Protection Services and made a police report.

The girl’s pregnancy was terminated in February 2018.

A paternity test revealed the foetus was fathered by another man.

Sentencing next

The prosecution sought a jail term of four to five years.

The defence asked for three years.

Sentencing will be at a later date.

Knowingly allowing the ill-treatment of a child carries a jail term of up to four years and a fine of up to S$4,000.

Intentionally omitting to give information about an offence carries a jail term of up to six months and a fine.

Top photo via Unsplash