Man, 52, sexually assaults daughter from age 12, gets 18 years' jail

When his daughter was still in primary school, a man began to sexually assault her.

For two years, when she was between the ages of 12 and 14, he came into her bedroom multiple times to assault her.

On one occasion, he also sent her a pornographic video, which she deleted.

The man, 52, was sentenced to 18 years' jail for two counts of aggravated sexual assault by penetration.

He cannot be caned as he is above 50 years old.

Sexual abuse

The abuse started in 2019, when the girl's mother left Singapore to visit relatives overseas.

She'd returned home from school and was alone in her bedroom playing games on her phone, when her father came in.

He sat next to her, watching her play games, and began to assault her through her shorts.

Feeling pain, she asked him to stop and pulled his hand out. He said "okay" and left.

Between that first instance and 2021, the man entered her bedroom to sexually assault her on at least four other occasions, when his then-wife was away or working the night shift.

On one of those times, she shouted at him to stop and tried to get up, but he pinned her arms down on the bed for a while.

He only relented when she kept struggling, the court heard.

Attempted to guard against him

The girl only realised the nature of  his abuse after undergoing sex education in secondary school.

But she was afraid of reporting the matter as she feared that he would hit or scold her.

At this point, she felt "very depressed" because of the abuse.

She said in her victim statement that she would "stay up very late every night", fearing that her father would enter the bedroom to assault her.

As a result, she "frequently lost sleep" trying to guard against him.

The girl also felt that her father's actions were disgusting, and felt scared of him.

Tipping point

In July 2021, when she was in Secondary Two, she was sleeping alone in her bedroom when her father came in to assault her once again.

Her mother was not at home as she was working the night shift.

The man assaulted her sexually, but this time, when she told him to stop, he ignored her.

He then stood up and began to undo the fastener on his pants.

Afraid that he would rape her, she fled into the living room. He eventually left her bedroom.

The girl felt extremely upset about the incident, and believed that there was no end to the sexual assault.

She decided to tell her form teacher. The authorities were informed and a police report was lodged.

Her father was arrested the same day and has been in remand since.

Blamed daughter

Deputy Public Prosecutor David Koh said that the man had been initially unremorseful.

He'd initially denied the charges, and later blamed his offences on his daughter, who he said had looked at him "in a sexual mode".

In response, the man shouted in court that this was the truth, The Straits Times reported.

He also sobbed and claimed that he was considering his daughter's "well-being" by agreeing to the prosecution's statement of facts.

In the girl's victim statement, she said that it was only after her father had been removed from the house that she began to heal.

Now 17 years old, she still feels unable to trust the opposite gender, and gets nervous whenever approached by someone of the opposite gender.

The abuse has "left a permanent scar in [her] life," she said.

"I know that after this case is over, one day my father will be released from the prison after he finishes his sentence," she wrote.

"But I never want him to come back to my family. I can never forgive my father for what he did to me. I can never trust him again."

Top image from Canva