S'pore primary school teacher, 51, who sexually groomed student for 11 years since she was P6, gets 14 years' jail

"I find that the accused’s actions had robbed the victim of the innocence of childhood and had caused her immense emotional and psychological harm."

This was what the district judge, who prevailed over a case of a primary school teacher convicted of grooming his student for 11 years since she was 11 years old, noted in his written judgment.

The teacher, a married man who is now 51 years old, had claimed trial to the eight charges of sexual assault of a minor and offences under the Children and Young Persons Act brought against him.

His defence? He claimed he only started becoming "friends with benefits" with the victim, who is more than 21 years younger than him, only after she turned 16.

Even though he admitted that he had a "special feeling" for her when she was his Primary Six student.

How it was discovered

The written judgments of the case revealed that the relationship between the man and the victim came to light in 2017 when the victim's sister discovered three monologue videos the victim made.

In the videos, she cried as she spoke about her internal struggles concerning her relationship with the man and said she did not seek help for fear of getting the man into trouble.

She made the videos as she felt she had no one to confide in.

Her family made a police report — despite the victim begging her family not to do so as she hoped to marry him.

Statements were recorded from both the man and the victim.

During the trial, while the man disputed much of what he had said in the statements, it was undisputed that they were both in a romantic relationship and it was sexual.

The trial — What the victim said

The victim testified during the trial that her relationship with the man began in 2006.

The man, her teacher then, had passed her a piece of paper containing his phone number in the school library.

She had become close to him soon thereafter because they often chatted on MSN messenger.

The same year, in September, while they were alone in the school’s computer lab, she said the man showed her a piece of paper containing the words "I love you" and asked her to be his girlfriend over a phone call on the same day.

According to the evidence in the trial, the man started showering the victims with gifts, and very soon after the victim left primary school, he started to engage in sexual acts with her.

The first sexual assault

They frequently met in Bedok Reservoir in the man's car after school hours.

The man's advances started with kissing before gradually escalating to groping and other sexual acts.

The victim said she remembered clearly the first time the man did a sexual act beyond groping her private parts was when she was in Secondary 2 in 2008, as it was also the first time she visited his flat.

She said it was also the first time she had to take her taxi alone, and the man reprimanded her for telling the taxi driver his unit number.

She said he also told her off for "greeting him too loudly" as she entered the flat.

He was upset as he did not want his neighbours to know.

Started hurting herself

After what had happened in the flat, and many times after, the victim said she began hurting herself with a penknife.

The prosecution submitted old photos as evidence, which showed faint marks of what appeared to be old wounds of her hurting herself.

She testified that she had done so as she felt powerless in resisting the man's sexual advances.

She said that whenever she tried to defend herself by curling up, he would scream at her or accuse her of liking other guys.

He would also forcefully uncurl her body or even "go crazy" by kicking and throwing things in the flat.

Things escalated year after year

The victim said the man started using his private parts to rub against her the following year.

She was 14 to 15 years old then.

He also once sexually assaulted her in a public place.

The victim said she insisted that she did not want to have sexual intercourse with the man as she wanted to keep her virginity until she got married.

But before her 16th birthday in 2010, the man robbed her of her virginity.

She said she was very upset with what the man had done and asked if he did it on purpose, but he only casually asked if she was 16 yet, to which she replied no.

Her testimony was corroborated by her time-stamped messages to the man expressing despair for his unconcern of her dignity.

The man's defence

The man's first defence was that he rejected what he had said in his statements to the police during investigations.

In his statement, he admitted having romantic feelings, in his words, a "special feeling" for the victim beginning in 2006.

He also admitted to the Bedok Reservoir meetings and admitted to performing sexual acts with her when she was in Secondary One to Three.

However, during the trial, he testified that their "friends with benefit" relationship began only in 2011 – after the Victim had turned 16 — and occurred during a meeting at Bedok Reservoir when he had instinctively grabbed her hands while comforting her over her family problems.

At the same time, he testified that during their meetings in the car, he would sit in the driver's seat while she sat in the rear passenger seat as "it was the appropriate thing to do".

Months later, also during the trial, he then denied ever meeting the victim at Bedok Reservoir when she was in secondary school because of his "work and domestic commitments".

He even had his wife testify for him.

The judge rejected his defence, describing the man as "an evasive witness whose evidence is inconsistent, self-serving, and unbelievable" with the display of  "several major shifts in evidence", "selective memory", and "illogical excuses".

Judge believes the victim

On the other hand, the judge said that the victim was an "unusually convincing witness" even though she was the sole witness in the case.

He found that the victim had remained coherent and consistent on key issues despite intense cross-examination from the man's lawyers.

He said that her testimony went beyond "bare assertions" and was fair as she readily admitted to any matter she was unsure about.

The judge also found that she had no motive to lie and had "much to lose" by testifying — as she was already married to another man and had a child.

"She was concerned that her child would be disappointed to have a mother like her if it knew about her evidence in court," the judge wrote.

Delay in reporting does not mean its not the truth

During the trial, the man also attempted to discredit the victim's testimony by pointing out the "delay in reporting".

The judge noted that, in principle, a "delay in reporting" does not necessarily mean that the evidence would not be truthful.

He also pointed out that the victim was "young and impressionable", and it was unsurprising that a person of 12 to 13 years old would not suspect anything was amiss — a child or juvenile cannot be expected to always react similarly to an average adult.

Apart from immaturity, the judge said the victim had wanted to keep the relationship a "secret" to prevent the man from getting in trouble and wrecking his marriage — which was shown by the fact that she was not the one to report him.

Man claims he was in a 'fragile mental state'

In another attempt to discredit the victim, the man claimed that the victim was the "dominant party in their relationship" and had exploited his "fragile mental state" to manipulate him.

"I found such evidence to be inherently unbelievable," the judge wrote.

He pointed out the 21-year age gap, and that the man clearly was in a position of influence over the victim as her teacher.

The judge said it is also evident from the messages between the parties that he has a habit of using abusive language and threatened violence whenever he was unhappy with the victim — even over minor things.

The messages revealed that he had once chased the victim in the flat holding a knife because of an issue relating to his sexual advances.

The judge pointed out that it was the man who was, in fact, the "possessive and manipulative party" in the relationship, as seen in instances where the victim had to ask him for permission to meet with her male schoolmates.

The victim had testified that she had previously tried to break up with the man while she was in Secondary Two and Three, but she had to change her mind because the man had threatened to create a scene at her school.

Victim still in anguish: Judge

On sentencing the man, the judge noted a high degree of sexual exploitation of the victim, who was extremely vulnerable at all times during the offences.

He said that the private video confessions recorded when she was 18 showed her vulnerabilities and her internal struggles.

The judge said:

"More than a decade after the event, the victim’s sense of regret and anguish can still be seen when she recounted in court her shock in discovering that the accused had stolen her virginity in 2010 — the last thing that she was trying desperately to protect from him."

The judge also said that there was predatory behaviour, as seen from the abuse of position and the escalating nature of grooming and sexual exploitation.

"According to the accused, he did not see the victim as anything more than a 'friend with benefit' at all material times," the judge said.

Apart from sexual grooming, the man had also used force, coercion, and pressure to compel the victim to submit to his sexual desires.

The judge rejected the man's lawyers' request for 29 months imprisonment and handed down the sentence of 14 years and 2 months imprisonment.

He agreed with the prosecution that the sentence must carry a retributive element and be commensurate with the prolonged period of sexual exploitation and believed that the sentence he had handed down was proportionate to the overall criminality of the man's offences.

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