M’sian man, 37, rapes S’porean woman, 39, after both got drunk at company dinner, gets 11.5 years’ jail & 9 strokes of cane

A 37-year-old Malaysian man was sentenced to 11-and-a-half years’ jail and nine strokes of the cane for raping a 39-year-old Singaporean woman after they got drunk at a company dinner.

Beh Kien Tai pleaded guilty to one charge of rape and another charge of molestation on Jul. 23, CNA reported.

Two other charges were taken into consideration.

The victim’s identity, locations and the names of various parties involved, including the company, were not disclosed.

Company

In court documents seen by Mothership, Beh was an air-conditioning contractor at the time of the offence.

The victim was a project manager who knew Beh and an individual identified as “C1” in court documents.

C1 is the owner of an interior design company.

Beh was the interior design company’s subcontractor for air conditioners from around 2021, while the victim previously worked as a freelance sales associate for the company sometime around 2014 for about a year.

After the victim left the company, she continued to keep in contact with C1 as they were friends.

Dinner

On Jan. 13, 2023, C1 hosted a company dinner at the company’s office.

C1 invited the victim, some of her family members, and the company’s staff, subcontractors, and suppliers, including Beh, to the dinner.

The dinner commenced at about 7:15pm.

Guests consumed food, drinks and alcohol.

At about 8:41pm, the victim arrived at the company’s office and consumed a substantial amount of beer and wine.

As a result, she became intoxicated.

Beh also became intoxicated after consuming at least one glass of beer and four glasses of wine.

Intoxicated

On Jan. 14, 2023, at about 12:30am, C1 noticed that the victim was intoxicated and attended to her along with other female guests.

As she was unable to walk by herself, they helped the victim to the washroom and let her rest on a blanket and pillow located on the first storey of the office space.

At about 1:30am, the company dinner concluded, and guests made arrangements to leave.

Beh rejected a guest who offered to send him home and said he would rest for a while before driving home.

He then walked up to the loft located on the second storey of the office and rested on a bed.

At about 2am, C1, one of her staff members, the victim and Beh were the remaining people left at the office.

Before leaving the office, C1 switched on the air conditioner in the loft and closed the door between the loft and the company’s office space, where the victim slept.

She also messaged both Beh and the victim to inform each of them where their mobile phones were.

C1 and her staff member then left the office.

Rape

At about 3am, Beh walked down to the office space where the victim was sleeping on the floor.

He was aware that she was intoxicated.

Beh then stepped over her to access a washroom adjacent to the office space.

After using the washroom, Beh approached the victim and lay down with her on the floor.

At about 3:03am, he removed the victim's clothing, and he removed his own clothes.

Beh proceeded to rape and molest the victim.

Between 3:21am to 3:22am, Beh placed the victim’s pants back on.

At about 3:30am, Beh re-entered the office space, retrieved his pants and put it on before leaving the room.

He left the office at about 3:38am.

Text

At about 3:48am, 3:50am and 3:54am, the victim woke up and made multiple attempts to call from the office landline.

At about 5am, she sent a text to C1 saying that someone had “f*cked” her.

The victim left the office at about 6:08am.

At about 7am, C1 read the text message and retrieved surveillance footage from the office space.

After seeing what had taken place, she sent the victim screenshots of the footage.

The victim proceeded to lodge a police report.

On Jan. 15 at about 2:45am, Beh was subsequently arrested and remanded.

Vulnerable

The prosecution sought a sentence of 11 years and three months’ jail to 11 years and nine months’ jail, and nine strokes of the cane for Beh.

They argued that the victim was vulnerable and Beh exposed her to the risk of pregnancy and contracting sexually transmitted diseases.

The prosecution cited that the incident affected the victim emotionally and "practically”.

“In addition to feeling lost, confused and fearful after the event, the victim’s work (involving travel) was also impacted,” the prosecution said.

For committing rape, Beh could be jailed up to 20 years and fined or caned.

For molestation, he could be jailed up to three years, fined, caned, or given any combination of these punishments.