S'porean spirit medium convicted of sexually assaulting girl, then 14, during 'wushu' lessons in his home

A temple medium told a then-14-year-old girl to take one-on-one wushu lessons with him at his residence, then sexually assaulted her.

At the time of the incident in 2013, Tan Beng Kwee was a spiritual medium of a Taoist temple he founded at his own residence, according to court documents seen by Mothership.

He was around 51 years old then, and the temple members would address him as "shifu", which means "master".

At the temple, Tan would apparently be possessed by the Chinese deity Tua Ya Pek, and temple members and devotees would then receive directions from the deity through Tan.

During a session at the temple, while Tan was supposedly possessed, he told the victim to learn wushu, a martial art, from Tan.

The victim said she was sexually assaulted during these one-on-one lessons at Tan's house, which happened sometime in 2013.

In October 2025, a judge convicted Tan on all three charges he faced, including that of penetrating a female under the age of 16.

Tan, now 63, denied the charges and claimed trial, which had its first hearing at court on Dec. 23, Shin Min Daily News reported.

Wushu lessons

The victim, who was 14 during the incident, did not understand what wushu meant at the time.

When Tan, supposedly possessed by the deity, first told her about the wushu lessons, he threatened her to keep the content of the lessons between the two of them, or something would happen to her family.

Tan was not possessed when conducting the lessons.

At least two other temple members also had one-on-one wushu lessons with Tan, according to court documents.

The assault

The victim told the court that the assaults took place during one of the first few lessons.

In the living room, Tan said he was getting a little hot and wanted to go to a room with air-conditioning, then started to get touchy with the victim.

They went to the master bedroom, and Tan started to take off the victim's clothes while they sat on the bed.

He made the victim give him a hand job and blow job, despite her saying she did not want to.

He told her that once he penetrated her, she would not like girls anymore.

Despite her resistance, he insisted that he had to do it, or she and her family would be punished.

The victim was scared and found the assault painful.

When asked in court why she did not resist Tan, the victim said that she felt helpless at that point of time.

She felt that even if she were to scream for help, nobody could hear, as there was no one in the unit and the door was closed.

Felt threatened

The victim added that Tan continued to sexually assault her beyond the first few lessons, but these incidents were not the focus of any charges preferred against Tan.

According to the judge, the victim returned for subsequent lessons despite the sexual assault because she felt scared by the threats of divine punishment.

She told her sister, who also attended the temple, in a WhatsApp message that she dared not say anything as she was scared of Tua Ya Pek.

She also told the court she had previously treated Tan as a father figure. She looked up to him and was happy to learn things from him.

Afraid that her family would get into trouble, it took eight years for the victim to gain the courage to report the sexual assault.

She finally told the police about it on Jan. 23, 2021, after a fellow temple member and friend of her mother's said that reporting the incident could help other assault victims.

Will be sentenced

Although Tan denied that any sexual assault took place, the judge found his account to not be credible, and found the victim's evidence to be convincing.

During trial on Dec. 23, Tan's lawyer asked for leniency for Tan, saying that he genuinely wanted to teach the victim, Shin Min reported.

The lawyer argued that the assault was not premeditated, that Tan did not have a previous criminal record, and the victim could lead a normal life.

The prosecution, on the other hand, called for a sentence of nine years and four months’ to nine years and six months’ imprisonment.

Tan is scheduled to appear at court again on Dec. 31 for sentencing.

Top images from Unsplash and Mothership