S'pore man, 33, molests friend's sister then aged 7 to 9, says she initiated the kissing

A man has been sentenced to 19 months' jail for molesting a girl when she was seven to nine years old, and he was 20 to 21.

The incident happened sometime in 2012 or 2013, and the girl was his friend's sister, CNA reported.

Melvinder Singh Gurmit Singh, now 33, faced two charges of molestation, which involved kissing and touching her private parts.

There was skin-to-skin contact, according to charge sheets seen by Mothership.

However, Singh contested the charges, claiming that the girl and he kissed consensually, and that she fabricated the touching out of revenge.

Police report

The girl had not disclosed the offences earlier as she felt nobody would believe her.

According to court documents, after her mother knew of the offences, she brought up the idea of making a police report.

She later lodged a police report in March 2023.

Kissed girl on lips

Prior to this, the girl testified that after turning eight, Singh began kissing her lips in her oldest brother's room.

She added that she saw Singh as one of her older brothers. Court documents pointed out that he had free access to the family home even when his friend, the victim's brother, and the victim's parents were not home.

The prosecution stated that in 2012 or 2013, Singh kissed the victim multiple times before molesting her and placing her hand on his private parts.

She testified that at the time, she was swimming with her brothers and Singh, who took her elsewhere when her brothers were not paying attention and molested her.

According to court documents, she recalled being in a "state of shock" as she saw Singh as an older brother and had never encountered "similar touching" with her own brothers.

She also reiterated that she had not given consent for him to do so.

Told mother, boyfriend

She testified that she did not think her family would believe her due to their close relationship with Singh.

In addition, she became afraid of male family members, where her aversion to physical closeness subsequently extended to her boyfriend, whom she confided in in 2021 about being molested when she was younger.

This is because he asked her why she would panic or ask him to stop during acts of physical intimacy.

Two years after this, the girl's mother asked her about sleeping arrangements on a trip with her boyfriend and whether they were having sex.

To this, the victim said she was not comfortable talking about it, and after being pressed, disclosed that she had been molested by Singh when she was younger.

Her mother then brought up the idea of making a police report, which she did in March 2023.

Illogical theories raised by defence: Prosecution

Sanjiv Vaswani, who represented Singh, did not dispute that Singh had kissed the victim multiple times, but argued that it was consensual, adding that they had talked about kissing and that the victim had initiated some of the kisses.

He denied the clubhouse incident and gave three reasons why the victim would fabricate allegations against Singh, CNA reported.

The first reason being the victim wanted her mother's permission to go overseas with her boyfriend.

Secondly, he argued that she wished, or was instigated by her mother, to take revenge on Singh for his alleged involvement in her parents' divorce.

He also claimed the victim's mother was jealous of Singh after learning he was married and had a child.

According to CNA, Singh confirmed at trial that he was abandoning the revenge and jealousy motives.

His eventual position was that the victim had fabricated allegations to support her claim that she had intimacy issues and would not have sex with her boyfriend so that she could travel with him.

Penalties

CNA reported that the prosecution, who said the theories raised by the defence were illogical and entirely unfounded on the evidence, sought 20 to 22 months' jail for Singh.

They said he had exploited a young victim and abused the trust placed in him by the victim and her family members.

Singh will be appealing against his conviction and sentence.

For each count of molestation of a minor, he could have been jailed for up to five years, fined, caned, or given any combination of these punishments, according to CNA.