‘Outrageous exploitation’: Man sentenced to prison and caning for abusing teenager with ‘extremely low’ IQ

SINGAPORE — A 37-year-old man was sentenced to nearly 11 years in prison and 11 strokes of the cane on Tuesday (June 11) for sexually assaulting a 17-year-old girl he had just met and who was described as having an “extremely low” intelligence quotient (IQ).

The man pleaded guilty Earlier this month, the defendants were convicted on one count each of sexual assault by penetration and sexual harassment. One count of sexual harassment was taken into account in sentencing.

The names of the perpetrator, victim and witnesses may not be disclosed by a court order in order to prevent the identification of the victim.

District Judge Shaiffudin Saruwan imposed a prison sentence of ten years, eleven months and two weeks and eleven strokes of the cane and described the victim as highly in need of protection due to his mental state.

“The defendant knew that the victim was mentally abnormal. He took advantage of this fact and sexually abused her. The sexual exploitation was outrageous,” he said.

The judge found that the man continued his act despite the victim expressing his disapproval at some point.

“His sexual exploitation obviously caused her suffering and trauma.”

WHAT HAPPENED

According to court documents, the victim suffered from a “moderate” intellectual disability. Her IQ was estimated at 44, which falls into the “extremely low” intelligence range.

At the time of the crime in June 2020, she was 17 years old.

The teenager had a close relationship with her mother’s friend, a 34-year-old woman identified in court documents as W1, and the woman’s 36-year-old boyfriend, W2.

Sometime during the afternoon of June 29, 2020, the victim texted W1 saying she was bored. W1 and W2 then took the victim to their unit.

That evening at around 9 p.m., the perpetrator, a friend of W1 and W2 who regularly visited them at home for a drink, came by with a beer. This was the first time he met the victim.

He was aware that the victim was mentally abnormal because his two friends had told him that the victim was “special.”

“The defendant was also able to observe this in his interactions with the victim,” said deputy public prosecutors James Chew and Tin Shu Min.

Two hours later, the perpetrator asked the victim to accompany him to a nearby store. W1 instead suggested that all four should go together, as she was “cautious” due to the victim’s mental disability.

When she returned to the ward, W1 had to go to the toilet. Her friend W2 helped her because she was confined to a wheelchair.

While the two spent “several minutes” on the toilet, the victim went into the bedroom and lay down on the bed.

The perpetrator followed her into the room and took off his jeans because they were wet, court documents say. He put on a pair of shorts and lay down next to the victim.

There he began to harass her before pulling down her shorts and panties to perform sexual acts on her.

When the victim tried to pull up her shorts and panties, the man pulled them down again and continued his act.

“All the time, the victim was afraid. She remained calm and did not react to the defendant’s actions,” prosecutors said, adding that the victim also suffered physical pain as a result of the man’s actions.

The man only stopped his actions when he heard the toilet door open.

W1 later saw that both the man and the victim were lying on the bed. She also saw that the victim was covering his face and had his shorts pulled down slightly, while the man was only wearing shorts.

When W1 saw that the victim was crying, she lay down on the bed and hugged her. The victim then typed on her phone and showed it to W1, telling the woman that the perpetrator had abused her.

The victim and the perpetrator slept in the unit that night before the victim left the next morning.

W1 met the victim’s mother on August 4, 2020 and informed her about what had happened to her daughter. The mother reported the incident to the police the next day. The man was arrested the same day.

For sexual assault with penetration, the man could have faced a prison sentence of up to 20 years as well as a fine or caning.

For the offence, the man could have faced a prison sentence of up to two years, a caning, a fine or any combination of these penalties.