S’porean man, 71, who sexually abused daughter, granddaughters, nieces & students, gets 21 years' jail

The 71-year-old Singaporean man who sexually abused 11 girls, including his daughter, his granddaughters, and four of his nieces was sentenced to 21 years' jail on Sep. 17.

The four other victims were students who attended an enrichment centre he ran with his wife.

The victims were aged between five to 10 when they were abused.

The abuse took place over three decades, from 1997 to 2021.

The man faced a total of 33 charges.

He had pleaded guilty to 10 of them on Jul. 24, including rape, sexual assault by penetration, committing obscene acts involving a child, and showing pornography to a minor and outrage of modest.

The remaining charges were taken into consideration during sentencing.

The man, who cannot be named due to a gag order protecting the identity of the victims, has been diagnosed with myelofibrosis, a rare form of blood cancer.

Prosecution sought up to 36 years' jail

The prosecution sought a sentence of 32 to 36 years' jail for the man, but the judge rejected it.

According to a report by The Straits Times (ST), the judge said that though his conduct was "most reprehensible", the sentence sought was disproportionate to the man's overall criminality when compared with similar cases.

Taking into account the man's reduced life expectancy due to his terminal illness, the judge ultimately reduced the jail sentence from 26 to 21 years.

This was so that the sentence would not amount to a life sentence, she said.

The offences

Court documents seen by Mothership stated that the man and his wife operated an enrichment centre from 1997 to 2021.

He began sexually abusing his daughter in 1997, when she was about six or seven years old.

He told her not to tell anyone about the abuse, warning that the family would split up and that it would be her fault that her siblings no longer had a family.

His daughter was therefore frightened and did not dare to tell anyone about the abuse.

He subsequently raped her in 2005, when she was 15.

He stopped sexually abusing her after that.

In 2023, the man and his wife stayed temporarily with his granddaughters' family while they waited to move to a new house.

On one occasion during this period, the man showed his older granddaughter a pornographic video before sexually abusing her.

She was aged seven at the time.

He told her not to tell anyone what had happened, or she would no longer be his favourite grandchild.

He also sexually assaulted his other granddaughter, who was five, at the residence during the same period.

The abuse came to light on Aug. 4, 2023, when the younger girl told her mother what had happened.

Her mother subsequently lodged a police report.

Between 1994 and 1996, one of the man's nieces went to his home for tuition and would stay over to play with her cousins.

He began sexually abusing her in 1994, when she was about nine or 10 years old.

On one occasion, she cried after the assault.

In response, the man gave her S$50 and told her not to tell anyone what had happened.

She subsequently made excuses to avoid going for tuition and stopped going sometime in 1996.

In 2012, one of her aunts confronted the man about the abuse of her daughter, who was also one of his nieces.

In 2006 and 2010, the man also sexually assaulted two students, aged six and 10, who attended the enrichment centre he operated with his wife.

His offences only came to light in 2023, after the mother of one of his granddaughters made a police report.

According to ST, the man had previously been jailed twice, in August 1999 and March 2020, for molestation and sexual exploitation offences involving other victims.

An Institute of Mental Health report had earlier also stated that the man has a paedophilic disorder, with a sexual attraction to pre-pubescent girls, and assessed him as posing a danger to children.