S'pore man, 22, sexually assaulted cousin, then 10, told her acts were 'good for her'

A 22-year-old man in Singapore was found guilty of sexually assaulting his underage cousin at his home, while telling her that the acts were "good for her".

According to court documents, the girl was aged between eight and ten years old when the incidents occurred between 2016 and 2018.

The man is four years older than her.

When confronted by his family, he had also denied any wrongdoing and threatened to jump off a building to prove his "innocence".

What happened

The offences took place at the man's four-storey home, where the girl, now 18, was cared for daily by her grandmother and aunt.

To carry out the acts, he would frequently take her to a third-floor master bedroom under the guise of doing homework.

He would typically carry or drag her to the bed, lock the door, and draw the curtains before sexually assaulting her while she was covered by a blanket up to her neck.

He would only stop either on his own accord, during dinnertime, or when a helper knocked on the door.

The court heard that the girl had "felt uncomfortable" but did not question the acts as he told her that they "were good for her".

He also told her not to tell anyone.

Only realised rape later

Two separate family meetings were held at the man's home, but when confronted, he denied it and threatened to "jump down a building".

The girl said that she "initially did not know" that what her cousin did to her was "wrong".

She only realised that she had been raped sometime between Primary Six and Secondary One, after reading a news article about a rape case.

The girl later did some online research and realised that she had been raped.

However, she only told her mother about the incidents in detail in September 2020 as she did not want to "ruin the relationship" between her family and the man's family.

She added that her grandmother had also been upset with her, after the woman had accused her of lying when the girl approached her about the offences.

She had also told the girl to tell everyone at a family meeting that she was lying about the incidents.

A police report was later lodged on Jan. 3, 2021.

Denied offences

The man did not plead guilty to three charges pressed against him, and also argued that he never had the opportunity to be alone with the girl due to a strict schedule of tuition and co-curricular activities.

He also claimed the bedroom door was faulty and could not be locked.

The man had presented contradicting accounts, initially saying that he was not close to the girl "when growing up" and did not play with her "when there were no adults present".

He also told the police that both of them "were very close" and that they had been "physically very close" as they "played a lot of stuff together".

Convicted

In her judgment, Thean said she found his testimony "not credible".

She pointed to his extreme reaction during the 2018 family confrontation, where he offered to "jump down the building" to prove his innocence, as being "extraordinary" as a response to the girl's report.

Thean ruled that the girl's evidence was also "unusually convincing".

Referring to a separate case as an example, she said that children should not be assessed from the perspective of stereotypes, but by their specific mental development and familial context.

The man was acquitted on his first charge A1 due to a lack of specific detail regarding that particular timeframe, but was convicted for the other two offences.

Court documents indicate the sentencing for the case has been reserved.

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