Corpun file 7916 at www.corpun.com

The Straits Times, Singapore, 10 October 2001

Ah Long San's 'double' locked away for 7 years

A MAN who posed as the infamous Geylang loan shark Ah Long San to cheat, rob and extort money from taxi drivers was sentenced to seven years' preventive detention and 24 strokes of the cane yesterday.

Tan Cher Liang, 45, an odd-job labourer, was sentenced just four days after the man he impersonated, Chua Tiong Tiong, also 45, was himself jailed for 10 years for corruption.

Tan, a repeat offender, was given preventive detention instead of jail. This means he cannot get early release for good behaviour.

He committed most of his offences in Geylang and in the Desker Road area between March and June this year.

Tan had faced 14 charges in all, involving 13 cabbies and $8,769 in cash and mobile phones.

He pleaded guilty last month to eight charges -- three of extortion, two each of robbery and cheating, and one of theft -- and the rest were considered during sentencing.

These two incidents show how Tan went about it.

On March 24, while in Mr Ng Teo Lee's cab, Tan, speaking on his mobile phone, pretended to give instructions to someone to beat up people who owed him money.

He told the cabby he was the Ah Long San who controlled the underworld in Geylang.

When they got to Lorong 22, Geylang, Tan demanded $20,000 from Mr Ng and threatened to have his henchmen give him problems if he refused. When Mr Ng said he had only $3,000 in his bank account, Tan made him withdraw this sum from an ATM.

On May 12, after midnight, while riding in Mr Roger Liu Ze Min's taxi, Tan told him he was Ah Long San and demanded money.

The cabby refused at first, but handed over $50 out of fear after Tan punched him in the face.

When Tan demanded more and threatened to assault him, Mr Liu gave him another $150.

But then it was the cabbies' turn to get their revenge. They ganged up on Tan and detained him in Geylang on June 17.

Copyright © 2001 Singapore Press Holdings. All rights reserved.

Corpun file 8152 at www.corpun.com

Channel News Asia, Singapore, 15 October 2001

Serial robber gets corrective training and caning

By Sean Au

A serial robber was sentenced to 12 years of corrective training and ordered to be given 24 strokes of the cane for robbery.

A District Court heard Muhammad Taufiq Abdul Rahim, 29, targeted women as his victims and hurt them while committing the crimes.

He struck five times between March and June this year.

His victims, all aged between 48 and 66, suffered punches to the stomach or head.

One of them sustained a cut with a knife.

Corpun file 8012 at www.corpun.com

The Straits Times, Singapore, 16 October 2001

Warden molested boys under his care

HIS ruse was to play 'catch-me-if-you-can' with the young boys under his charge in a welfare home.

A father of two, Samian got five years' jail and 15 strokes of cane.

In one such game in January 1999, Samian Juri, 35, a welfare officer, caught a 13-year-old boy and then carried him into a room and molested him.

In a district court yesterday, Samian, a father of two, got five years in jail and 15 strokes of the cane after he pleaded guilty to three charges of molestation.

The court was told that between November 1998 and June 1999, he also molested three other boys at the home.

Six other charges were also considered during sentencing by District Judge Teoh Ai Lin.

When Samian molested them, three boys were aged 13 while the fourth was 11.

In November 1998, Samian asked another 13-year-old boy to meet him in the laundry room. While there, he rubbed the boy's private parts.

Two months later, two boys were cleaning a room in the home when Samian pulled one of them, a 13-year-old, by the hand and fondled his private parts. This boy, whom he later molested during the 'catching' game, struggled and managed to break free.

Samian then turned to the other, an 11-year-old, and molested him. The elder boy tried to help his friend but failed.

In his mitigation plea, Mr Peter Keith Fernando said his client had been sexually abused during his childhood and the experience affected his psychosexual development.

But Deputy Public Prosecutor David Khoo said Samian committed the offence many times and his victims were young.

He pointed out that Samian was supposed to care for and guide his wards but he abused his position of trust.

Copyright © 2001 Singapore Press Holdings. All rights reserved.

Corpun file 8039 at www.corpun.com

The Straits Times, Singapore, 20 October 2001

Mechanic's targets were as young as 10 years old

By Alethea Lim

THE prosecution called him an 'irrepressible serial molester'. The judge called him 'plainly wicked'.

Gan Jian Ping is only 16 years old. His targets were as young as 10.

Yesterday, in the High Court, Justice M.P.H. Rubin sentenced him to 10 years' jail and nine strokes of the cane.

For three weeks between February and March this year, the sex fiend preyed on young girls in the Bukit Batok Housing Board estate, following them into lifts to molest them. Once, he forced his way into a girl's flat and attacked her.

He was already on probation at the Bukit Batok Hostel after being convicted of having sex with an underage girl. Gan, a car mechanic, was allowed to go to work each day and could go home on weekends.

On Feb 23, he molested a 10-year-old girl at a staircase landing of a block in Bukit Batok East Avenue 5.

The next day, he followed an 11-year-old back to her home in Bukit Batok Street 52. He knocked on the door, pretending to look for 'Andy', then forced his way in and made her undress, threatening to harm her if she did not. Gan molested her and made her perform oral sex on him.

On March 10, he attacked a 16-year-old girl, and on March 16, a 10-year-old girl, both in apartment block lifts in Bukit Batok East Avenue 5.

Then on April 21, the girl he had attacked in her home spotted him at a pasar malam near the Marsiling MRT station. She called the police and they arrested Gan.

Yesterday, he pleaded guilty to three molest charges and another of forcing the girl to perform oral sex on him. Six other charges were taken into consideration.

Gan's lawyer, Mr Leonard Loo, said the crimes were not sexually motivated.

He said Gan was a smoker and hostel regulations banned smoking.

Gan, he said, found he could rid himself of the smell of cigarette smoke if he ran quickly and hyperventilated. So, said the lawyer, Gan committed the offences so that he could run quickly from the scene of the crime back to his hostel.

Deputy Public Prosecutors Thong Chee Kun and Edwin San disputed this claim.

Gan had showed 'little remorse', they said. And far from being an 'act of indiscretion that sprung from youthful impulse', his attacks had all been calculated.

As for Gan's explanation, they said it was 'incredulous'.[sic]

Corpun file 8108 at www.corpun.com

The Straits Times, Singapore, 31 October 2001

Molesters to get at least 9 months' jail

Stiffer sentences needed to deter potential offenders, says CJ, citing a 25 per cent rise in cases this year

By Alethea Lim
Court correspondent

CHIEF Justice Yong Pung How yesterday sent a strong message to molesters, saying that from now on they can expect to be jailed for a minimum of nine months.

Stiffer sentences were needed to deter potential offenders, he said, as the number of molestation cases had risen by 25 per cent this year.

CJ Yong made the ruling when he tripled the six-month jail term of George Nathan Edward, 33, who molested two women in March 1999. On top of his 18-month jail term, Edward, a pub owner, will also be given six strokes of the cane.

The CJ enhanced the molester's sentence after Deputy Public Prosecutor Winston Cheng asked for stiffer punishment for the man, whom he described as a 'sexual pervert' who needed to be 'put out of circulation'.

The DPP said that Edward was not a first offender and had a propensity for committing sexual offences. He had been jailed and fined previously, in 1997 and 1998, for committing obscene acts in public, the DPP added.

The molester's latest offence took place on March 10, 1999. That night, two women out drinking on Boat Quay decided to play a trick on their girlfriend by pretending to be drunk when they met her at the Hyatt Hotel in Orchard Road.

The three women shared a taxi to Yishun, where they alighted at a bus stop.

There, the two women continued their act, with one of them sitting on the ground. Edward was walking by at the time and insisted on helping the third woman to pull her friend up.

As he was helping the woman on the ground, he touched her right breast. He also stroked the third woman's back and touched her breast.

Afterwards, when the women walked towards the Yishun flat where one of the trio lived, he followed them. They called the police and Edward was arrested.

He was tried in May on two charges of molest and sentenced to a total of six months in jail. He appealed.

Yesterday, CJ Yong threw out Edward's appeal, saying that the man had molested the women 'under the guise' of helping them.

Describing the original sentence as a 'little lenient', he upped it to nine months for each of the two charges, and ordered that Edward be caned as well.

Said the CJ: 'He is not a first offender and that is what worries me more than anything else.'

He added that the pub owner's previous sentences had had 'no effect' on him, and that the molester deserved a heavier punishment, as the prosecution had asked.

Copyright © 2001 Singapore Press Holdings. All rights reserved.