S'pore ex-teacher, 41, told underage female student to sit on his lap & call him 'daddy', gets 2 years' jail

A 41-year-old former teacher was sentenced on Jul. 23 to two years' jail after he made indecent advances on his underage female students.

The man, who was married at the time of his offences, made one student sit on his lap and call him "daddy".

Both students reported him to the school principal, and he was found guilty of three counts of performing an indecent act with a child, and one count of sexual grooming.

There is a gag order on details about the man and the school to protect the student's identity.

Inappropriate messages

Court documents seen by Mothership stated that the man, who taught design and technology (D&T) classes at the school, had become a fully trained teacher in 2014.

In 2022, he got to know one of the students when she was between 13 and 14 years old.

The man and the girl often met at the school's D&T studio, where he would provide consultations for her.

He also helped her with mathematics despite not teaching the subject.

They regularly communicated over WhatsApp over a period of about five months, having extensive conversations that frequently took place after 6:30pm, including about personal matters.

Court documents stated: "During these conversations, the complainant addressed the accused as 'daddy', 'dearest daddy', and similar variations from... 2022 to the end of January 2023.

"In return, the accused addressed the complainant as his 'dearest daughter' and variations of the term."

Unsolicited comments on physical appearances

In addition, the man frequently gave the student unsolicited compliments on her physical appearance no less than 24 times.

He also told the student in a message that has since been deleted, that he would date her in the future, marry her and make her his wife.

The man knew that communicating with the student in this manner was inappropriate and violated the Code of Conduct.

Vanishing mode

He was then warned by his subject head around Nov. 16, 2022, that it was inappropriate for the student to call him "daddy".

The man was also warned to keep his distance from the student.

Court documents stated that after receiving the warning, "the accused deleted all the photos that the complainant had sent to him via WhatsApp and instructed the complainant to 'unstar' messages that he had sent to her, delete all photos and messages between them, in case her phone was checked".

Subsequently in the same conversation, the man suggested moving their conversations to Instagram with the use of "vanishing mode", which is a chat mode specifically designed to prevent screenshots and screen recordings of messages.

Inappropriate physical advances

From September to November 2022, they met at least five times where he would hug her and kiss her cheeks.

During one meeting in the D&T room, the man instructed the girl to sit on his lap, which she did despite feeling uncomfortable.

Court documents stated: "He stroked her stomach with his thumb for about a minute. The accused also hugged the complainant more than 10 times and kissed her on the cheeks and forehead... Furthermore, when she was sitting on his lap, the accused told her that he had not had sex with his wife in two years."

On Nov. 28, 2022, in a car that the man had rented, he kissed her cheeks while she sat on his lap and she did the same.

He also told her several times that she was not to tell anyone what happened between that day in case his actions were perceieved as grooming, to which she complied.

There were no meetings between the pair in December 2022.

The next time they met was in January 2023, at an alley behind the school hall, where the man hugged the girl and she hugged him back.

He also kissed her forehead a few times and told her "I love you" and "I miss you" several times, and the girl reciprocated by saying the same.

Treated girl poorly

Court documents stated that in May 2023, the man suddenly told the girl that they could not "be close" anymore, which she understood to mean that they could no longer hug, kiss, refer to each other as "dad"/"daddy" or "daughter", or use words of affection.

After that, the man began treating the girl poorly, specifically calling her "mentally ill", telling her that she was demanding, and avoided her whenever they walked past each other.

The girl testified that in the initial stage, she felt devastated from receiving such treatment from the man and her academic grades began to plummet.

However, over subsequent months, she began to realise that she may have been groomed by the man after listening to her schoolmates talk about the man touching girls on their heads and his bias towards female students.

Reported, arrested

After finding out that the man had also supposedly been making advances on another female student, she suggested that they report him to the school principal together.

The Straits Times reported that the man was arrested and charged in court in 2024.

Defence lawyer Kalaithasan Karuppaya told ST after the case ended that his client had left his job after he was suspended.