| www.corpun.com : Archive : 1999 : SG Judicial Dec 1999 |
Judicial CP - December 1999
The New Paper, Singapore, 1 December 1999This patient couldn't keep his hands to himself
The New Paper, Singapore, 6 December 1999Her fear turns to anger...and molester gets jail
The New Paper, Singapore, 10 December 1999Sayang girl's molest traumaMissed nursery school for a month
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JAILED ONE YEAR He had no lawyer to defend him, and pleaded guilty to all three molest charges. Deputy public prosecutor Daniel Chia pressed for a deterrent sentence in court, stating that Azman's lewd act was "planned and deliberate" as Azman had given the girl a packet of noodle crackers to "gain her trust" before he molested her. Azman was sentenced to a year in jail and four strokes of the cane. Anyone found guilty of molest can be jailed up to two years, fined, or caned, or given a combination of any two of these. |
BY TANYA FONG THE four-year-old girl was molested at her family's nasi padang stall, when her mother was around. Her parents have since decided to give up their thriving food business so that their child would never have to live through another day of the trauma. Little Faridah (not her real name) was molested by one of her parent's regular customers at their nasi padang stall in July. Faridah had to miss nursery school for a month because she was just too traumatised. And even now, more than four months after the incident, the bubbly girl with big expressive eyes runs away from people who wear songkoks. This is because the molester, Azman Othman, 32, regularly wore one. Said Faridah's father: "Every time she sees a man in a songkok, she is scared, so we let her stay at home and not go to school for a while." Whenever Faridah sees a man with a songkok, she goes and hides behind her mother or her father. Azman was a regular customer at the nasi padang stall. He was a volunteer at a nearby mosque and went to the stall, usually twice a day, for his meals. On the morning of July 29, around 9 am, Azman approached little Faridah and asked her to sit on his lap. The scheming molester gave her a packet of noodle crackers and then boldly rubbed her groin region with his left hand. He also rubbed her buttocks. He even had the nerve to seal off his disgusting act with a kiss on the little girl's left cheek. Faridah's mother was busy cooking at that time. Azman was caught red-handed because their neighbour, a hawker, saw what he had done. He quickly informed the child's mother. Said the mother: "I was just too shocked. This man always comes to my stall to eat and he always seemed friendly. "He just had mee-siam for breakfast that day. "The next thing I saw was my daughter on his lap, and how he was so overly affectionate with her, I felt so disgusted." The pain really sank in after the incident. Said the child's father: "We had to talk to her to tell her that what the man did was wrong. Since then, she has been feeling scared and did not even want to go to our stall. "So we decided to give it up, because there's no one to take care of her at home when we are doing business." Faridah and her older sister usually hang out at the coffeeshop before and after school. Their mother would take Faridah to the stall with her early in the morning. Faridah would then go to a nearby kindergarten at 11.45 am, from the coffeeshop, and would return to the stall around 2 pm. Added her father: "We feel very hurt that this happened. "Especially when we asked her if the man had always tried to "sayang" (Malay for showing affection to) her. "She said yes. That was also what made us decide to close shop," he sighed. He would not say how much money they have lost by closing down the business. They opened the stall in May and closed it just five months later. Faridah's father works as a supervisor and her mother now stays home to look after Faridah and her older sister. Said the father: "My wife and I decided to set up this business so that we can have some additional income. "And also so that she would have something to do in the daytime, when the children are in school. "We never expected such a thing to happen. Worse, in such a public place and right in front of my wife when she was busy," he said. He was also upset by the reactions of some friends. There was some initial disapproval from their friends when they made the police report against the molester. Said Faridah's father: "Some of our friends came and talked to my wife and me and kept advising us to drop the case. "I told my friends that if their sister or their mother got molested like that, would they be able to forget about it?" They accepted his stand after that.
Copyright © 1999 |
By Karen Wong
A YOUTH, charged in court with helping a teenager to stage his own kidnapping to extort money from the boy's father, got into a gang fight while out on bail.
Chin Theam Lai, 20, who is unemployed, admitted to trying to extort $100,000 from the boy's father, a 48-year-old luggage salesman.
He also admitted to rioting.
Yesterday, he was jailed for a total of three years and ordered to be given six strokes of the cane.
It was on May 3 this year that the supposed kidnapping surfaced. At around 11 pm, the boy's father received a ransom demand from the "kidnapper".
The kidnapper telephoned again about half-an-hour later. This time, he let the father speak to the 15-year-old boy, a student at Gan Eng Seng Secondary.
The boy told him several men had waylaid him on his way to school.
The father received more calls the next morning, and bargained the ransom down to $10,000. The police had the calls traced.
At about 12.30 pm that day, they arrested the youth and the boy at the Amara Shopping Centre in Tanjong Pagar Road.
This was what happened:
The teenager skipped school on May 3. At a video arcade in the shopping centre, he and Chin cooked up the kidnapping scheme.
Chin wrote down what the boy was supposed to tell his father.
They then called the boy's home from public telephones at the World Trade Centre and Tanjong Pagar Plaza.
In July, the Juvenile Court sent the teenager to a boy's hostel for a year of intensive supervision, followed by 18 months' probation.
Chin, a Malaysian, was charged in court two days after his arrest and was out on $50,000 bail.
On July 23, he was arrested for fighting with a rival gang at Spottiswoode Park after "settlement" talks between the gangs failed.
Chin and 15 other youths were involved in the scuffle. The other cases are pending.
His lawyer, Mr R. Palakrishnan, asked the court to be lenient. He said Chin's parents ran a catering business in Kuala Lumpur and he lived here with his elder siblings.
Chin did his O levels in 1996 and was taking a diploma course in legal studies at the Temasek Polytechnic but dropped out after a year.
Mr Palakrishnan said the bogus kidnapping came out of "idle talk" and "child play-acting", and was only a naive attempt to help the younger boy escape punishment for playing truant.
Copyright © 1999 Singapore Press Holdings Ltd. All rights reserved.
By Karen Wong
A YOUTH, who went to his friend's flat on the pretext of playing television games, ended up molesting the friend's sister instead.
A district court heard yesterday that the culprit, Mohamed Riduwan Chomil, 18, had armlocked the 15-year-old girl, pushed her onto the bed and molested her.
No one else was at home then.
When the girl's father returned shortly after, Mohamed Riduwan left the flat in a hurry, leaving behind a knife he had been carrying.
He was arrested about two hours later, after the girl told her father what had happened.
Yesterday, Mohamed Riduwan, a Fuchun Secondary School student who had just completed his O-level examinations, was jailed a total of 33 months.
The court also ordered him to be given nine strokes of the cane. Another charge of punching and strangling the girl was considered by the court, in passing the sentence.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Leon Low told the court that at about 12.45 am on Nov 29, the accused went to his classmate's flat in Woodlands.
He knew that his classmate's sister would be alone then.
The victim allowed him in after he told her that he wanted to play with her brother's Sony PlayStation.
Once inside, he latched the door, followed her into her bedroom and suddenly armlocked her around her neck.
When she struggled to free herself, he tightened his grip.
He then forced her onto the bed and squeezed her breast twice.
The DPP said that the culprit was arrested at about 4.20 am that day, about two hours after the girl's father came home.
Pleading for leniency, Mohamed Riduwan's lawyer, Mr Muralidharan Pillai, said that his client was drunk at the time and that he was sorry for what he had done.
Copyright © 1999 Singapore Press Holdings Ltd. All rights reserved.
By Karen Wong
A TOP engineering student from Temasek Polytechnic was yesterday jailed three years and ordered to be caned three strokes for molesting two young girls in lifts on two separate occasions.
Ong Wee Siong, 17, who was in the top 10 per cent of his class, had trailed the girls in Tampines housing estate, followed them into the lift, and then molested them.
Yesterday, he pleaded guilty to molesting the two girls, aged 12 and 13.
In sentencing him, District Judge Seng Kwang Boon said that Ong had committed a serious offence when he harassed and molested the young victims.
The judge also noted that the accused, a first offender, had faced two other similar charges which involved a 10-year-old girl.
Deputy Public Prosecutor Sandra Tsao told the court that at about 1.30 pm on Aug 23 this year, Ong entered the lift of a block of flats in Tampines Street 21 with the 12-year-old girl.
When the lift stopped on the sixth floor, Ong lifted up her skirt and then ran out.
But just before the lift door closed, he stopped it with his elbow and ordered the girl to take off her shorts and underwear.
When the victim pulled down her shorts but refused to strip further, he lifted up her shirt and touched her breast before fleeing.
About 1½ weeks later, Ong followed another girl, aged 13, into a lift in Tampines Street 11.
When the lift stopped on the sixth floor, he tried to lift up her shirt to molest her but could not. He became angry and threatened to beat her up if she refused to allow him to touch her.
She tried to escape but he blocked her path. He fled when she shouted for help.
On Sept 13, one of the girls saw him at the void deck of her block. She told her brother who called the police.
Ong was caught at the Tampines Bus Interchange.
In asking the court for leniency, Ong's lawyer, Mr Ching Chiak Yong, said that his client, who was from the quality engineering and management department, was one of the top 10 students in his year.
He added that the accused was suffering from mental stress when he committed the offences and has since received treatment for his illness.
But the judge ruled that Ong could not get away with just probation, in view of the seriousness of his offences.
Copyright © 1999 Singapore Press Holdings Ltd. All rights reserved.
Compiled by Foong Thim Leng
THE four teenagers who beat up a lawyer after he told one of them to stop using his mobile phone in a cinema should be caned, Straits Times readers said.
The law should come down hard on these people, said the more than 80 readers who called the ST Newsline.
Some said the four teenagers who had attacked lawyer Gerald Khor, 29, should be ashamed of themselves.
Khor was assaulted in the cinema lobby by four teenagers after a midnight movie in the Golden Village Plaza cineplex at Plaza Singapura on Sunday.
He had ticked off one of them earlier for talking loudly on his mobile phone during the show.
The attack landed Khor in hospital with a dislocated shoulder, cuts on his face and bruises on his eye and back.
By Tuesday, all four suspects were detained by the police, who classified the case as voluntarily causing grievous hurt.
If charged and convicted, the four could be jailed up to seven years each and fined or caned.
Caning is the best punishment for these teenage hooligans, said Mike Sim, 55, a company managing director.
He said: "A few of us get beaten up and the rest are scared into silence. The law must be seen to be enforced."
Follow-up: 22 June 2000 - Jail, caning for trio who beat up lawyer at movieCountry files: Corporal punishment in Singapore
Article: Judicial caning in Singapore
Copyright © C. Farrell 2001
Page updated March 2001
